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reene Countru STotone 



"Let every house Ix* placed, if the person 
pleases, in the middle of its plat, as to the 
breadthway of it, so that there may be ground 
on each side for gardens or orchards, or fields, 
that it may be a greene country tovvne, which 
will never be burnt & always wliolesonie. 

— Williaiii PeiDi'.s luntnictionx to hi,s Voinniissioiiens, 
WilUani Crispin, John Eezar, d- yathaniel 
Allen, dated 30th of Sept., A. D. lOSl. 




W I L 1.1 AM I'KNN 

AFTKK IIIK I'.KVAN tAKVINCi 



PENN'S 

Greene Country Towne 



I'KN AND PENCIL SKliTCHES 

OK EARLY PHILADELPHIA 

AND IIS VROMTNEN'P THARACTERS 



Rev. S. F. HOTCHKIN 

AT riI»)R OK "HISTORY OF GERMANTOVVN, ITiK (U.li 

YORK ROAD," "BRISTOL TIKE," "RURAL 
PKNNSVI.VANI A, ' ETC., ETC., ETC. 




» J » '> • » 
> • J > ! > 



FERRIS cV I. K A C H 

29-31 NORI H SEXKNIII S P. 

1903 



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!THi zr 

Cc -.^. 
Ty«o Coficji* HtotiYcb 
NOV -4 1903 






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Copyright, 1903, by Fkrkis & Leach 



iEo ill 11 i'rienb 
SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER 

GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA 

WHO HAS DONE MUCH TO PRESERVE 

THE HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH 

OVER WHICH HE PRESIDES 

®l}is llolumc is CDebicateb 



PRK FACE. 

It lia^^ Ix^on well said that '^ It is not 
necessary that those things which are con- 
stantly (lone should be noted in history, bnt 
those things iliat are rarely done/" The his- 
tory of Philadelphia, and of Pennsylvania in 
gem'ral, is a reeoi'd of what has rarely been 
done in the world, a.nd thei-efore it is most 
worthy of ])reservation. 

In the folhnving work the anthor has 
nowhere intentioindly violated the essential 
trnth of history. Vet there are passages in 
this narrative nnsnp])orted by any direct 
docnnientarv evidence. They are not, how- 
ever, freedianded fiction, and carefnl im- 
aginative attempts to fill in the ga])s inevit- 
ably left in the l)are ontline portraitnrc (U" 
character which is all that formal history 



8 Preface, 

STipplics. The \\\()\'v intimate aspects of a 
man's nature are more essentially personal 
and peculiar to himself than his public 
actions, yet they are ahnost necessarily 
slighted by public records. To supply these 
aspects by inference from known facts is a 
necessary task of the historian who would 
make his characters living men to his readers. 
His justification rests more upon the essen- 
tial truth of his })icture than upon any close 
limitation of his field of view to the facts 
proved by formal records. 

Talfourd said, in describing Hazlitt, that 
imagination "■ makes truth visible in the 
forms of beauty, and substitutes intellectual 
vision for proof." In this view imagination 
has an honored place in histc^ry, which has 
been defined as " ])hilosophy teaching by ex- 
ample.'' l\ is this functi<m of the imagina- 
tion which the author has essayed to exercise, 
always under due historic restraint. 



Preface. 9 

Tlaviug for many years enjoyed the 
pleasures and privileges of a life in Phila- 
delphia, he takes great interest in striving to 
make its remarkable origin, and even more 
remarkable Founder, known to others who 
walk its streets and dwell in its comfortable 
mansions, as well as to those who have known 
it only as visitors, or through the ])rinted 
page. 



S. F. H. 



Kkctory ok St. Luke's Church, 

BusTLETON, Philadelphia. 
October, 1903. 



I''1'h| 


E^S 


ijfi^ 


^^^Si 



V O N T K N T S 



[.— Thk Vision 
II.— Sol I, r.iKK .... 

I I I.— SOKHOW AND .lt)Y . 

IV.— Ph()<;kkss .... 
v.— Mri ATioNS 

VI — ThK IvKTl KN 

VII.— Mir.MA .... 
VIII. — Nkw .\ij;iON 
l.\.— ".V <LKVKit r.irrr.F. Town 

X.— XnVA SlAlUA 
XL— (iKK.MANIA 
XII.— Tfik .\FTKKMATH 



17 
:u 

48 

82 
98 

\n 

146 

I6;i 

179 
195 



I L L U S 1^ K A 1^ I O X S . 



William Penn in his Lattkr Years, Frontupien 

An engraving after tlie ivory bust carved 
from nieniory by Sylvester Bevan. 



OPP. 
PAOK 

William Penn 17 - 

The "Portrait in Armor." 

Old View of Rotterdam 26 

From "Description de touts les Paysbas," 
by (xuicciardin. 

Allhallows Church, Barking .... 33 

From " Berkyngechurche by the Tower," 
by C. R. I). Biggs, B. D. 

Interior of Allhallows Church, Barking . 34 ^ 

From "Berkyngechurche by the Tower," 
by C. R. I). Biggs, B. D. 

An Early Quaker Meeting 41 

After the original engraving 1)y Egbert van 
Heemskerck. 

Gulielma Maria Springett . . . . . 44 . 

Engraving after the original painting. 



Contemporary Portrait of Charles the 

Second 51 

Showing the execution of the regicides in 
the background. From Woodburn's Gal- 
lerv of Rare Portraits. 



14 11/ list rations. 



Ai>.Mir:AL Sii; William Pknx .")H v 

Engraving after the portrait i)y Sir IV-tcr 
Lcly, at (Jreenwich H<>s)>ital. 



.loKDANS, IIli;iAL PLACK OF W'lLIJA.M AND 

< il l.lKl.MA PkNN 

Kn. ni :i uhkUmii flioto-rapli. 



Ol.n M KETINCJ-HOUSK IN BUKLIXGTON , N . .1 . . 'io 

l-'roni a contenijiorary flvawin}^. 

M()i»ki;n 1Ii:stoi;ati()N of I'KNNsnuKY . 7<l 

Proposed l)uiidiii;j;ol' the Bucks ("ounty His- 
torical Society. Designed by Addison 
llutton, from information furnished hv 
Cen. W. H. H. I>avis, I'resident I'.iicks 
County Historical Society. 

Hannah Callowhili 89 

I'roni the portrait in hidcpciidencc Hall. 

Thk Wharves of Hkistoj. and thk Cmi R( ii 

OF St. Mary Hkihlifff H(> 

I'niiM Cniry'". '' History <.l' liristol." 

.Iamks 1.o(.an Hil 

lOngravini; after tlic cri.ninal portriiil at 
Stcnton. 



Ol.l) ViKW OF TIIK Si ATFHOISK IN PhI],AI)KI.- 

IMIIA . , 104 

l-nnn a cnppi'rplatt' cn<;raviM;; in T/ie ('nliinibiini 
MiKjazinf. 



JSTKNTON, THK RksIDKNCK OF JaMES LO(;aN 
From a modern pliotograjtli. 



Illustrations. 15 



.lonN Pknn, " Tm: Amkkican " . . . .111 

After the ori>(inal |iortraii asciilx-d t<» Sir 
(iodCrov KiielU-r. 



Isaac Noitni? 



After a painting in the possession of tli 
faiiiilv (»f Isaac Norris. 



Thk First Christ Chukcii • . . . .184 

From an <»Ul drawing. 

KiCHAKi) I'KNN, Proprietary 150 

After the original portrait l>v Kiiliard 
Wilson, !!. A, 

Tho.mas I'knn, Proprietary lo2 

After the portiait hy Van Dyek. 

.JOH.N l*KN.\, (iOVERNOR lao 

After ai) etchiii- by All)ert Rosenthal. 

(JRAK.MK Park 15? 

After a ciinteiniiorary paiiiiii)fi. 

(Ji.oRiA Dki.or old Swedes' Church . itJS 

I- "roni a modern plmldifraph. 

Lhtitta 1*i:nn's ("otta(;e I'oti 

.\fter a conjeetnral restoration nl' its ancient 
surroundings, in U'atson's Annals. 




WILLIA>r PENN 
"armor portrait" 




Efje Fision 

My love beats hard against my breast. 
So hard — can I confide now? 

No! confidence might break my rest, 
And faith will not be tried now. 



" Should he disclose his love to me 
Whilst in the forest straying, 
Were there a tongue in every tree, 
What might they not be saying! " 

— PlETER CORNELIZOON HOOFT. 

The evening of October the fourteenth, 
Anno Domini 1644, was settling down into 
a dense London fog as the newly-made Cap- 
tain Penn sat in the drawling-room of his 
house in St. Catherine's parish, near the 
Tower. The war between Charles the First 
and Parliament was stirring the kingdom, 
and the navy was at a loss how to act in the 
matter. The officer's head was filled with 
disquieting thoughts as he cogitated over the 
rumors of deadly strife which were con- 
stantly heard in the streets. 



18 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

The young Captain had eaten his evening 
meal, and now sat by the fireplace, dreamily 
watching the cheerful gleam of its soft-coal 
fire playing upon the glittering silver candle- 
sticks on the sideboard. He read a few let- 
ters from personal friends, full of thoughts 
of the impending strife, and then fell into a 
reminiscent mood. He thought of his old 
Welsh ancestors, who knew how to pray and 
to fight, and whom England had covered with 
her ample wing. The boyish life at Bristol 
rose up before him, and he recalled the 
Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, where he 
was baptized. The Cathedral, the beautiful 
St. Mary Redcliffe, and the immense tide in 
the Avon from the Bristol Channel, were 
other youthful recollections of what was then 
the second city in importance in the kingdom. 

Then there rose before his vision the 
pleasures and toils of sea-life, as the lad had 
served his nautical father, Giles Penn, in 
mercantile voyages, and had sailed over the 
Mediterranean, filled with thoughts of St. 
Paul's sea experiences, and those of many 
worthies of later years. Then came a lieu- 
tenancy in the Poyal !N'avv, in which his 



The Vision 19 

father was a captain. Then there crept in a 
sad reverie of the elder and only brother of 
the dreamer — George, the rich merchant in 
Seville, who had married a Spanish lady, and 
who was for three years a prisoner of the In- 
quisition; but in the Captain's vision this 
brother was only the Bristol boy and play- 
mate. 

Deeper and more personal thoughts loom 
up in his mind. There was a trip to quaint 
old Rotterdam, and business took the young 
man to the house of Hans Jasper, the alder- 
man and merchant. Who is this stout young 
maiden, full of life, whom the eye of memory 
paints gliding through the hall, when the 
father bids her come in and speak with the 
young Englishman ? The coy smile and de- 
mure look of the damsel give way to a thrill 
of sympathy as Ihe seaman, like Othello, tells 
his fair Desdemona stories of the perils of 
the sea. 

Providence has settled two yoimg lives, 
and business which is too important to be 
neglected detains the sailor. How vivid the 
picture becomes! He sees the numerous 
canals, like those of Venice, the island and 



20 Fenn^s Greene Country Towne 

drawbridges, the ships in the streets, with 
lanterns on their masts, and the lighthouses 
on the bridges, with the reflections on the 
water, answered bj the lamps on the houses, 
which the ardent lover tells Margaret remind 
him of the light of her dear eyes. The tri- 
angular city, with its immense dyke to warn 
the river Meuse to keep its distance, forming 
a walk called The Boompjes (meaning small 
trees), from the row of elms upon it, comes 
into his mental view. Sometimes the lovers 
walked here, and at others along the river 
Rotte, finding in the trees the glory of a scen- 
ery where hills were lacking. 

Jasper's low^ brick house, with its high 
front wall, concealing the roof, is again be- 
fore him, with parapets, and the doors and 
windows bordered by white stripes; the 
dwelling leaning forward as if to accommo- 
date the beam with its cord and pulley which 
raised baskets and buckets. The shop was on 
the first floor, and the carved head of a deer 
jutted out from a round window above it as 
a sign. A row of flower-pots adorned the 
outer window-sills, as is now often seen in 
Liverpool. A spy-mirror showed the dwellers 



The Vision '21 

who was at the street door, and Penn waited 
not long when Margaret's sharp eyes beheld 
the suitor at the gate. It was not needful for 
him to stoop and read the brass doorplate, 
which was polished until it shone like gold. 

The quiet burghers in the street, who, 
unlike Chaucer's sergeant, were busier than 
they seemed, gazed at the fiery youth as his 
heart drove him rapidly along the way to his 
sweetheart's home; and thoughts of their 
young loves brought a brightness to the 
cheek and a thrill to the heart as they 
stopped to buy a nosegay for the housewife 
at home. The women washing walls and win- 
dows stopped long enough to see the waiting 
one admitted, and hear a sound that appeared 
to be a welcome from honest lips; and then 
they remarked' that they had beheld that 
sight several times in one day; that boys 
would be boys and girls would be girls; that 
their men were foolish when they were 
young, and they had been a little silly them- 
selves; but they wished the alderman's 
daughter would not take up with that for- 
eigner, for they disliked the English, and ex- 
pected soon to be at war with them. Still, 



22 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

they did like this particular Englishman, who 
had been very generous to the Jasper ser- 
vants, and they wished him well; but it 
seemed needful to add a mournful headshake 
and a shrug of the shoulders. 

A fine wire network prevents a sight 
within the windows of the house of Margaret, 
but we must follow William's mental vision 
and take an inquisitive look. A table of por- 
celain objects, crystal and flowers and toys 
serves for bric-a-brac ornament. The shining 
furniture and clear window-panes show 
Dutch housekeeping, but we will go upstairs, 
and see the short wide beds, with their im- 
mense feather pillows, the copper candle- 
sticks, with the little candles, and the w^hite 
linen sheets. The house was cleaned twice a 
week, and the maid-servant, with her lilac 
gown, white apron and sabots, and turned-up 
sleeves, was ever at work. 

^ow wedding preparations are going on. 
The furniture is carried into the street for 
cleaning, and woe to the luckless intruder 
who strives to navigate between the buckets 
and pans, brushes and brooms that litter the 
doorsteps and stairs. Penn found it worse 



The Vision 23 

than the English Channel, but to him it was 
the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, and 
he bore it bravely. The water ran into the 
gutters, and rejoiced to splash all things. 
Passengers were driven from the pavement 
by the fiery zeal of the cleaners. 

And now comes the happy morning of 
the first of May, the wedding-day. The pale 
morning light is coming from the !N'orth Sea 
to wake Margaret. She rises to look on the 
varied colors of houses and ships and trees, 
fences and fields and gardens. The scene has 
been familiar from babyhood, but it is now 
dearer, for she is about to leave her much- 
loved native land. She attires herself in a 
gay and richly-hued dress, and selects tulips 
and hyacinths such as Rembrandt would de- 
light to paint. A white lily is the choicest 
flower for the chosen bride. Her earrings 
are accompanied by that wondrous golden or- 
nament encircling the head which one sees in 
Holland. This had been handed down in the 
family for generations, and is deemed more 
precious than diamonds. A headdress of lace 
and muslin falls like a veil over the white 
neck and the well-roimded shoulders. 



24 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

The kisses of father, mother and bride- 
groom bring a rosy color to her cheeks; and 
the coaches start for the old church, which 
was once a cathedral. The bride glances at 
the streets which she had often seen so full 
of traders at night, and brightly illuminated 
by the interior shop lights, and at the win- 
dows above, where many faces of rosy ser- 
vants and curious children gaze at the gay 
procession. 

The old gothic Cathedral of St. Lawrence 
is reached, and its large square pews are filled 
with an expectant throng. Bride and groom, 
bridesmaids and groomsmen are soon before 
the altar. It is a goodly sight. The aged 
Dominie Van Dusen performs the solemn 
marriage ceremony. The immense organ, 
which had welcomed the entrance of the wed- 
ding party, now cheers their exit, and adds 
to Dutch airs the English national anthem. 
The notes echo through the large building, 
while the tombs of Admirals, with their 
Dutch and Latin inscriptions, seem to utter 
a gentle murmur, as forewarning that the 
bridescroom w^ill yet battle ao:ainst the Dutch- 



The Vision 25 

land, which has been wrested from the sea by 
toil, and kept from invaders' hands by blood. 

The crown, which was placed on the 
head of the bride when young girls led her 
to the altar, still adorns her forehead as she 
rides home in state. A particular door is en- 
tered by the bride and groom at the home 
mansion which is never to be opened again 
until one of them is borne out to burial. The 
solemn threshold is strewn with flowers and 
greens, and the laurel is conspicuous as a 
sign of triumph. The sun, which has been 
partially veiled by clouds during the cere- 
mony, bursts out in full splendor as the door 
is entered, which seems a happy augury to 
all. The wind rustles among the trees, and 
stirs the flags displayed on the ships, as if 
singing a wedding hymn. The windmills 
add a chorus, and the benediction of peace 
falls on every heart. 

The Dutch are large eaters; the wedding 
dinner would have delighted Sardanapalus. 
The fish of the sea, and the cattle of the 
plain, the fowls and the milk, the Dutch 
cheese, and cake and sweetmeats that disap- 
pear this day will leave a tradition in the hos- 



26 Perm's Greene Country Towne 

pitable house. The unmarried persons who 
inadvertently place themselves between a 
married couple at table are, by Dutch folk- 
lore, to be married within a year. Some are 
playfully charged with making an intentional 
blunder. Instead of cake, the bride sends 
each friend tv/o bottles of spiced and sugared 
wine, decorated with a profusion of ribbons. 
Medals with pretty devices are distributed. 
Only the relatives in this nation are per- 
mitted to give presents, but the glittering sil- 
verware proves that they have not forgotten 
the pleasant duty. As the day wears on, 
music and the dance awaken mirth. On the 
next day the bride appears with her head cov- 
ered and gives all guests a glass of wine or 
other liquor, to show that she is mistress of 
her house. 

But Margaret Penn must leave her home, 
and the carriage runs past the houses with 
their ancient inscriptions which had moved 
her childish curiosity, past the statue of 
Erasmus in the market-place, out into the 
vast green plain that surrounds the city, with 
its verdant villages whose church-bells are 
chiming national and sacred airs. A trip to 



The Vision 27 

Scheveningen to look from its dunes over the 
broad sea, a further journey to Antwerp, a 
sail to Ostend, and thence a jaunt to London, 
and our heroine is an Englishwoman. 

But Captain Penn is tired of reminis- 
cences, and must find a change in brushing up 
his seamanship. He picks up Tapp's " Sea- 
man's Kalendar,'' and " The !N'ew Attracter 
for ;N"avigation." He reads a vivid descrip- 
tion of a sea fight, given for " young cap- 
taines," from the cry ^' a saile '' and the fly- 
ing of the colors until victory perches on the 
banners, with the drums and trumpets sound- 
ing, and the echo, '^ St. George for England." 

[N'ext the seaman glances into Captain 
John Smith's " Sea Grammar," with refer- 
ences to " Master Wright's Errours of Navi- 
gation "; but his eyes grow dull, and he falls 
asleep. What dreams are rushing through 
his brain, as he turns and breathes heavily in 
his chair. He fancies himself a vice-admiral, 
honored in life and death. 

But another vision comes before the 
troubled mind. It is not of warlike honor, 
but it echoes the Angels' song at Bethlehem 
at the birth of Christ, and sings a peaceful 



28 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

anthem to praise God and bless men. He be- 
holds a fair city in the distant land of which 
Smith wrote, where two goodly rivers meet, 
where commerce rules the waves, and men 
pass rapidly in moving machines incompre- 
hensible to his mind. A million people are 
dwelling happily in this vast city, and in its 
midst stands a great building, surmounted by 
a statue of its founder. 

The candles have burned out, the fire is 
low, the Tower clock is striking eleven. The 
door opens. The dreamer starts as he hears 
the voice of the old family physician. Doctor 
Pharmax, crying, " Eh, Captain ! asleep, are 
you? Wake up; you have new cares and 
duties. A bouncing young boy upstairs will 
soon learn to call you father. You have no 
time for sleep now. Of what were you 
dreaming ? " 

" Never mind, Doctor," said Penn ; ^' T 
am rejoiced to hear your good news. I hope 
my lady is doing well." 

" Yes, indeed," replies the good-natured 
Doctor. 



The Vision 29 

" Then," says the proud father, ^' let us 
drink the young man's health." 

'' With all my heart," answers the physi- 
cian, and the Captain cries, '^ Here, Caesar, 
bring fresh candles, and wine and coal, and 
let us be joyful on this auspicious night." 

A sprightly yoimg black enters the room, 
and soon all is bright, as the friends wish hap- 
piness to the young feet that are to tread the 
rough ways of life. 

" What," says the Doctor, " is to be the 
name of the new heir of the noble Penns ? " 

The Captain's reply is not long in com- 
ing. " Why," he responds, quickly, " Wil- 
liam, of course. I bear the name of my 
worthy grandfather, and he shall continue it 
in the family. Minety, in the county of 
Gloucester, and Penn's Lodge, in the county 
of Wilts, keep up his memory. He died in 
1591, and was buried before the altar in 
Minety Church. May such high honor be 
granted me when my work for my native land 
and the holy Church of England is done, and 
I go to my heavenly reward with my blessed 
Saviour, and my sainted ancestors." 

The doctor drank to the health of voung: 



30 Penii^s Greene Country Towne 

William, and there was a little chat about old 
times and new, family changes and the pres- 
ent exciting war. The physician stoutly ad- 
hered to his King, Charles the First, while 
the Captain was beginning to waver, having 
embraced the doctrine of the Dutch proverb, 
'' Magt maaht regt/^ — " Might makes right." 
The sturdy Cromwell and his psalm-singing 
and praying men were constantly impressing 
that idea on the public mind by the powerful 
argument of the pike-point, — an argumen- 
tum ad hominem hard to resist. 

But the Doctor must be moving, and calls 
aloud, '' Pompey ! " A second black boy 
answers the call. The Captain recalls hav- 
ing heard some horse-play in the kitchen be- 
fore he fell asleep, and knows that the repre- 
sentatives of the two Roman emperors have 
been amusing themselves in the present, 
while his vision has been running into the 
distant future. The boys came together in a 
ship from the West Indies, and are fast 
friends, hence the lights grow dim and the 
fire dull, as Caesar neglects them and exer- 
cises his African wit in teasing Pompey. 

T^ow it is Pompey's turn to work. He 



The Vision 31 

lights his torch, and leads his master in the 
darkness through the unlighted and muddy 
streets of the poor London of the seventeenth 
century. The mud-bespattered and tired 
Doctor walks into his office, crowded with 
pills and potions, writes an entry of the birth, 
hoping that no more children will need his 
aid in entering this rough world that night, 
and goes to bed for a dreamless sleep. 

As Captain Penn passes to his chamber, 
he stops and listens at his wife's door. He 
hears her humming gently a song of Dirk 
Coornhert, private secretary of the States of 
Holland, which he had taught her in courting 
days: 

"Maiden, sweet maiden, when thou art near, 
Though the stars on the face of the sky appear, 

'Tis as light around as the day can be; 
But maiden, sweet maiden, when thou'rt away, 
Though the sun be emitting his loveliest ray, 

All is darkness, and gloom, and night to me. 
Then of what avail the sun or the shade. 
Since my day and night by thee are made ? " 

And so we leave the happy father, the 
trusting mother and the unconscious child 
with a benediction of peace. Let them rest 
now, for God wisely conceals from vouns: 



32 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

and old the troubles of coming years, as the 
Saviour declared that the passing day had 
cares enough, without adding those of to- 
morrow. 



Note.— It is an interesting fact, perhaps not generallj' known, 
that Anne Jasper, sister of Margaret Jasper, the mother of William 
Penn, married Wm. Crispin, whom Penn appointed Surveyor 
General of Pennsylvania, but who died in the West Indies on his 
way hither. His son afterward filled the same post. — See History 
of the Hart Family, by Gen. W. H. H. Davis; Capt. Wm. Crispin arid 
the Crispin Family, by Kev. Wm. Frost Crispin. 





Soul Hife. 

" The soul on earth is an immortal guest, 
Condemned to starv^e at an unreal feast, 
A spark, whicli upward tends by nature's force: 
A stream, diverted from its parent source: 
A drop, dissevered from the boundless sea: 
A moment, parted from eternity: 
A pilgrim, panting for the rest to come: 
An exile, anxious for his native home." 

—Hannah More. 



Allhallows Church, Barking, stands at 
the end of Tower Street, in old London. It 
lost its dial and porch in the great fire of 
A.D. 1666, but one of the finest Flemish 
brasses in England is still on its antique floor, 
elaborately engraved and enamelled, to the 
memory of Andrew Evyngar and his wife 
(about 1535), and another to William 
Th}Tine, to whom we owe the first edition of 
Chaucer's Works, in 1532. Other brasses 
and old tombs cover the floor and walls. 
Here the poetic Earl of Surrey was hurriedly 
buried, after his execution; as was also 



34 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

Bishop Fisher, the friend of More. Arch- 
bishop Laud was ignominiously interred in 
the churchyard, but afterwards removed to 
honorable sepulture in St. John's College, 
Oxford. 

It is the 23d day of October, A.D. 1644. 
A stately group is advancing along the stone 
floor of the aisle. They are Captain Penn 
and his pious wife, and the sponsors, being 
two military friends and a titled lady, who 
are to act as godfathers and godmother. Thus 
did religious parents give back to God in 
Holy Baptism the child which He had given 
them but nine days before. As the aged 
clergyman signed the youthful forehead of 
the unconscious babe with the sign of the 
cross, prayed that he might ever be " Christ's 
faithful soldier and servant," and hoped that 
he was raising another bulwark to support 
the magnificent Church of England, did his 
voice tremble a little as a presentiment arose 
in his mind that the prop might prove a weak 
one? ' 

We may suppose that in after days the 
mind of William Penn at times reverted to 
his spiritual birthday, and the solemn scene 




INTERIOR OF A LLH ALLOWS (HlKr 



Sou/ Life 35 

in that ancient sanctuary of God. Who 
shall say that the mighty work for good he 
accomplished may not be dated from that 
day ? Spiritual forces, like natural ones, are 
quiet, but mighty, and " the kingdom of God 
Cometh not with observation." Electricity is 
coming to dominate the physical world, but 
its forces were hidden until late years 
brought them into play as man found and 
utilized God's power. 

I^ext we find the promising heir of a large 
estate at a school founded by Bishop Hars- 
net, at Chigwell, anciently Cinguella, sup- 
posed to mean The King's Well, near his 
father's residence in Essex. Here the 
thoughtful boy wanders among the wheat 
fields of a fertile section, or looks at an old 
royal mansion in the forest, or passes along 
the long street to worship in the ancient 
church. He admires the cattle and at times 
visits the seashore, and watches the hard 
work of the oystermen. He glances across 
the wide expanse of water which is washing 
the distant American coast, not knowing 
what a riddle for him lies beyond his feeble 
gaze. 



36 Fenn^s Greene Country Tow tie 

Sea and shore teach the boy of twelve re- 
ligious lessons, and in all natural objects he 
loves to see the hand of his Heavenly Father. 
Benevolence already indicates the mind of 
the child. Does a poor beggar, or a wander- 
ing minstrel approach the school ? ISTo sneer 
or jibe is on his lips, but his abundant pocket- 
money melts away before the piteous tale. 
The Holy Spirit has touched his young heart, 
and he feels that a knowledge of Greek and 
Latin does not constitute the full education 
of a Christian lad. The vices of heathen em- 
perors, the questionable tales of mythology, 
and the bloody accounts of heathen battles, 
are not as improving as a quiet hour with 
God in the evening twilight, and a self-exami- 
nation ending in a bold resolution that to- 
morrow shall be a step heavenward longer 
than to-day. 

The Vice-Admiral goes to his Irish es- 
tates near Cork, which Cromwell had given 
him; and a tutor takes the place of a school- 
master. !Now comes the crisis that all must 
meet in life. Thomas Loe, the English 
Quaker, visits Ireland. The boy's father in- 
vites him to his house. The young boy sees 



Soul Life 37 

a black servant weeping at the earnest words 
of the minister, and tears are running down 
the cheeks of the soldierly father. The 
strange scene was never forgotten. 

Christ Church College, Oxford, is the 
next scene of study. The many temptations 
of a university town are to be met, and over- 
come by the grace of God, by one only a lit- 
tle more than fifteen years old. Athletics 
and good society brighten the life of the stu- 
dent. Kobert Sunderland, the future illus- 
trious Earl of Sunderland, and the vener- 
able John Locke, were among his com- 
panions. Oxford was debating over the re- 
ligious views of the scholarly Vice-Chancel- 
lor, the famous Dr. John Owen, who had 
entered Queen's College at twelve, and had 
risen to this high position. Being a Puritan, 
he had been ejected after the Kestoration, 
but his influence survived his departure. 
Thomas Loe had belonged to the University, 
but had joined the Society of Friends, and 
was holding meetings which Penn and his 
friends attended. The young men neglected 
the college services; some irregularities 
occurred, and they were expelled. 



38 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

The earthly paradise of Oxford must be 
left. The Cathedral, the church towers and 
pealing bells, the sounding organs, the walls 
that have echoed to the words of the Gospel 
for centuries, the memory of thousands of 
white-robed Bishops and clergy who have 
gone out to bless the world, — all these must 
be things of the past. The little Cherwell 
Eiver, the velvet grass, the Bodleian Library 
and Christ Church meadow are abandoned. 
Thomas Warton, a Poet-Laureate, described 
old Oxenford, "majestic Oxford," thus: 

" Like a rich gem in circliiio: gold enshrined." 

This glory was not appreciated by one who 
believed himself to be contending for a prin- 
ciple. 

The family now felt disgraced. The 
father was highly displeased at his son's con- 
duct. The son abhorred fashionable life, and 
associated with religious persons. The Ad- 
miral felt that William's prospects in life 
might be destroyed. He strove to persuade, 
he argued and chastised,^without effect; and 
then turned the son out of his house. 

Then there was relentins^. The amiable 



Soul Life 39 

wife interceded, and may have naturally 
pleaded that she herself was educated in the 
Reformed Church of Holland, but had con- 
formed to the Church of England on her 
marriage; and that the young man had re- 
ceived the blood of his warlike father and 
grandfather, and could not be coerced. 
There is a compromise. The wise Admiral 
thinks that William must go to France, 
where change of scene and gaiety will make 
a new man of him. He travels with people 
of rank to Paris, and is kept pure in a gay 
metropolis. 

Saumur, on the bank of the Loire, lies on 
a steep hill, with an ancient castle above it, 
which now serves as a town hall. Penn was 
passionately fond of the study of theology, 
the queen of the sciences, as treating of God, 
the source of all science; and to Saumur he 
went, where the great Divinity professor of 
the theological school was Moses Amyrault, 
a French Calvinist. He it was who obtained 
the revocation of the order that Protestants 
must address the King on their knees. Riche- 
lieu and Mazarin were friendly to him. 

As the students walked over the beautiful 



40 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

bridge that spans the Loire, or climbed the 
neighboring hill, his mind was full of the 
deep thoughts of Calvin and St. Augustine 
which his preceptor had given him. Like the 
angels of Milton, he 

" Sat on a hill retired, 
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high 
Of Pi'ovidence, foreknowledge, will, and fate; 
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute; 
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost." 

The Admiral must needs take his fleet to 
fight the Dutch, and the young man leaves 
his loved books to care for the family in his 
father's absence. He studies law at Lincoln's 
Inn. He writes to his dear father that he 
prays that God may shield him amidst the 
perils of battle. He visits Charles the Second 
with dispatches, and the manly and ruddy 
youth has high prospects of advancement. 
But the father has been deceived in the 
thought that the world is the master, and he 
sends his son to Ireland that the Lord-Lieu- 
tenant, the graceful and lively Duke of Or- 
mond, and his court, may enliven him. 

He assists in putting down a mutiny in a 
garrison, and thinks of taking the command 



Soul Life 41 

of a fort. But the Admiral holds him back 
from motives of discretion. The armor which 
is seen on the portrait of the yoimg William 
Penn is laid aside, and the ceremonies of the 
court are abandoned. 

The Admiral next employs his son in the 
care of his Irish estates in the county of 
Cork, which includes Shannigarry Castle. 
The business is well done, but William enters 
a shop in Cork kept by a female member of 
the Society of Friends, whom he knew in 
boyhood; and recalling Loe's visit to his 
father, declares that he would travel a hun- 
dred miles to hear this powerful preacher 
speak again. The response is that Loe is even 
now in Cork, and is to hold a meeting the fol- 
lowing day. 

Penn hears him tell of the faith which 
overcomes the world, and the faith which is 
overcome by the w^orld. Old impressions of 
divine things are revived. Again his heart 
thrills with the thoughts of eternity that 
came to him in the London plague, when 
death stared him in the face and whispered in 
his ear. Thomas Loe has won him to the new 



42 PenrCs Greene Country Towne 

faith, and Penn pays the penalty by being 
arrested at a Friends' meeting. 

The son continues in his faith, and will 
not give a bond, but is soon released, al- 
though his opinions cause another breach 
with his father, and he is again expelled from 
home. Yet the dear mother clings to her 
child, and prevails on the Admiral to use his' 
influence to have William released whenever 
his religion causes his imprisonment. The 
former young man of fashion now assumes 
the plain dress of Friends, which was simply 
the apparel of those of that day who did not 
enter the fashionable world. 

William Penn becomes the friend of 
George Fox, is guided and inspired by him, 
and afterward propagates Fox's opinions 
through the medium of his own voluminous 
writings on religious subjects. Having expe- 
rienced the troubles of a sojourn in the 
Tower, he does much to obtain the release of 
those who are thus vainly punished to force 
their unwilling minds. How often such expe- 
riences arise in his mind may be conceived by 
those who have, though innocent, been im- 
mured within gloomy w^alls. He has sat 



Soul Life 43 

where murderers and thieves have consorted, 
and reflected, " Here am I, a loyal English 
subject, the son of an officer, held in vile 
durance, as a malefactor, because I hold opin- 
ions not allowed by the State. A day will 
dawn when minds shall not be thus op- 
pressed. May God give me strength to has- 
ten it ! " 

Admiral Penn closes a life of hard toil for 
his native land with kindly words for his son, 
and commits him to the care of his friend and 
sovereign, Charles the Second, and the Duke 
of York, who was to become James the 
Second. 

Wealth is now in the hands of the youth- 
ful Friend, but ^NTewgate again opens its 
gloomy doors to him by religious persecution. 
Rogues and felons here abound, as we are 
told by Thomas Ellwood, who has himself 
been imprisoned here. In the night, hani^ 
mocks three stories high receive the poor 
sleepers, and the upper ones must first climb 
to their hanging beds. Under the lowest 
hammocks are beds on the floor, where the 
weak and the sick lie. The breath and steam 
from all these bodies is almost unbearably 



44 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

offensive. Health and mind suffer, and 
one prisoner dies from the cruel treatment. 
Farces of trials accompany these unjust im- 
prisonments. Let us be thankful that a 
brighter day has enlightened men to see that 
minds are free. 

Mars and Mercury, Fashion and Persecu- 
tion, have striven to control the mind of 
Penn, and now Love will try its hand. Venus 
rose from the sea with her smiles, and angry 
waves are subdued by gentle oil. 

Sir William Springett, a Parliamentary 
soldier, was killed in the days of Charles the 
First, in the wars between the King and the 
Parliament. The widow married Isaac Pen- 
ington. A daughter, Gulielma Maria 
Springett, is a beautiful young lady, with 
many accomplishments, whose sweet disposi- 
tion attracts all, while her dignity, piety and 
beneficence make her a meet companion for 
so worthy a husband. What London and 
Parisian ladies might not accomplish is easily 
performed by this country gentlewoman; and 
a willing captive sits at her feet. God^s good 
Providence is seen by Penn as guiding his 
steps, for many suitors had sought the hand 




GULIELMA MAKIA .STUJ^ItKIT 



Soul Life 45 

and heart now reserved for him. The lover 
himself tells us, '' She loved him with a deep 
and upright love." 

The '^ honeymoon," as Addison called it, 
is passed in the new home at Rickmansworth, 
in Hertfordshire. Edward the Elder, in the 
tenth century, rebuilt Hertford town and 
castle, and sometimes royalty honored the 
place by residing in it. Here, at times, the 
newly-wedded lovers are seen looking at the 
antiquities of early days, or wandering on 
the banks of the Colne or the Lea, where 
bright green meadows recall the imperial 
Roman days, when the camps of that warlike 
race ruled English soil. The Abbey of St. 
Albans, the church and cave of Roystone, the 
ruins of the castle of Berkhamstead, and the 
high chalk hills of the county, tempt them to 
many a wedding trip, where each enjoys the 
view Avith redoubled pleasure because of the 
company of the other. Often are the horses 
stopped during the pleasant horseback rides, 
that the devout riders may worship the God 
of Nature in the scenes of beauty which sur- 
round them; while a thought of the blessed 
Saviour, without whom nothing was made, as 



46 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

St. John tells us, gives a new life to the rose 
and the lily that bloom along their pathway. 

They had found the " River of Juvenes- 
cence/' of which Prester John wrote to 
Manuel Comnenus, the Emperor of Constan- 
tinople, saying that there was a spring at the 
foot of Mount Olympus which hourly 
changed its flavor, day and night; and that 
any one who tasted its delightful water could 
never know infirmity or fatigiie. 

Penn is in his twenty-eighth year at the 
time of his first marriage, which occurred in 
A.D. 1672. 

Worminghurst House, in Sussex, a few 
miles from the sea, is a new home of the 
Penns. The eminence on which the house 
stands commands a view of the South Downs. 
The building has since Penn's time been de- 
stroyed, and the Duke of Norfolk now owns 
the estate. But to Penn in his youth the 
English Channel sings a daily and nightly 
song of distant America, washed by the 
parent waters of the ocean; and Beachy Head 
stretches its longing gaze across the wide 
abyss. 

The wheat and hop fields, and the famous 



Soul Life 4:Y 

cattle on the hills, please the agricultural 
Penn, and here he might well pass a pleasant 
life as a country gentleman, and perhaps 
grace the halls of Parliament. But God has 
another and a greater work in store for him. 
The prospective founder of a new empire is 
not to rust in comparative obscurity. The 
family motto of the Penn arms is " Bum 
clavum teneam,^^ — " While I can hold the 
helm," — and the present representative of 
the family is to hold the helm of state, and 
add dignity to the family history. Mean- 
time journeys in England, and on the Conti- 
nent, for religious teaching, employ the mind 
and heart of the good man. 





Sorrobj anti Sog. 

"Sorrow and Love go side by side; 
Nor lieight nor depth can e'er divide 

Their heaven-appointed bands; 
Those dear associates still are one, 
Nor till the race of life is run, 

Disjoin their wedded hands." 

—Madame Guyon, translated by Cowper. 

Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire, near 
Gerrard's Cross, was the residence of Guliel- 
ma Maria Springett when Penn first met her. 
'^ Guli/' as she was called, was fond of Mil- 
ton, who lived here, and on one occasion, 
when she was visiting in the cottage which 
the poet had rented near Penington Grange, 
Thomas Ellwood, the Quaker, being present, 
the announcement was made by Milton that 
" Paradise Lost " was written. Ellwood sug- 
gested " Paradise Regained " to finish the 
grand idea. The addition was accepted; and 
so the second great poem flowed from the 
active brain of the philosophic poet. 



Sorrow and Joy 40 

Then said Guli, " We will not, like Plato, 
banish music from our republic, lest, like 
Midas, we have asses' ears fastened to us for 
preferring Pan to Apollo; but as music ^vas 
played while the walls of Thebes rose, let us 
join in a song." She took up her lute and 
sang with Milton, who dearly loved music, 
from '' II Penseroso " : 

'' There let the pealing organ blow. 
To the full-voiced choir below, 
In service high and anthems clear, 
As may with sweetness, through mine ear. 
Dissolve me into ectasies, 
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes." 

Penn, as a friend of Isaac Penington, the 
stepfather of Guli, is admitted into this 
choice coterie. Sir William Springett's mar- 
riage to the mother of Guli was a love-match, 
encouraged by the mother of the baronet, 
who did not wish her son to marry for the 
sake of interest. Into this charmed circle 
Penn and his wife are ever welcome, and 
many happy days are thus spent. 

]^either friends nor foes can draw Penn 
from the society of his beloved bride, and 
there is a long honeymoon. Then Guli ac- 



r>() Fenn^s Greene Cowntnj Towne 

companies her devoted husband on religious 
tours of mission work. 

One of the notable deeds of the Admiral's 
career has been the conquest of Jamaica, and 
many an evening do the married lovers sit 
until the late hours listening to his weird 
tales of the strange natives, the wild animals 
and the tropical fruits of that ocean para- 
dise. In the son's mind there springs up a 
restless desire to see the western world with 
its wonders. 

While the Irish lands had been given to 
the Admiral and his wife by Cromwell, on 
account of their losses in the Irish rebellion, 
the sea-commander was also honored as the 
head of the expedition to the West Indies 
against the Spanish rule. The Admiral was 
then conniving with Charles the Second, who 
had not yet gained the throne, but secretly 
sanctioned Penn's action. The attack of the 
Admiral on Hispaniola failed. But he was 
successful at Jamaica, which Oldmixon called 
^' the most flourishing colony in the new 
world." 

The great Admiral afterward tasted the 
uncertainty of power, and, like his son at a 




IfcHA 
COD 
lieqan lu. 



CHAr^LE5 Y 2 f>( THt GB \Ci 
COD KING OF KNGLVND5CarLV 
FK ANCr^C I Rt I AND Def<-ru/-rr o/^ fa ii 






_/fij /iVcb /ii-' 



^:;// 



4 



Sorrow and Joy 51 

later period, endured imprisonment. Crom- 
well committed him to the Tower for leaving 
his command without license, thus hazarding 
the army. The shrewd Cromwell had prob- 
ably received information of Penn's devotion 
to the cause of the King through spies. The 
Admiral acknowledged his fault, and was re- 
leased, but lost his commission. When the 
Lord of Cork asked him to surrender his 
lands, he said he could not ^' be hectored out 
of anything," but was ready to be com- 
manded '^ anything in reason." 

But following this time of depression 
comes the intense joy of the crowds at the 
Kestoration of Charles the Second. Let us 
gaze at the long procession of over twenty 
thousand horse and foot, shouting, while the 
ways are strewn with flowers, the bells are 
rung, and the streets adorned with tapestry. 
The fountains are running with wine, com- 
panies in livery are passing, and the nobles 
are clad in cloth of silver and gold and velvet. 
There are ladies in the balconies, trumpets 
are sounding, and music echoes in the re- 
sounding air. Myriads of people have come 
to join in the festivities, some from as far 



52 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

away as Rochester. The procession seems 
endless, and Evelyn relates in his diary that 
it was seven hours in passing, — from two 
o'clock in the afternoon to nine at night. 

The King goes to Whitehall. The inns 
are filled with a noisy crowd through the 
whole night, and the Protector's memory is 
roundly cursed by a populace anxious to en- 
joy life under the new monarch. Little do 
they expect the voluptuous and disgusting 
reign which has left a foul blot on the history 
of England, and is mainly recalled in this new 
land by the name of a spaniel breed which 
was a favorite one in the palace of the wicked 
and dissolute monarch. Even on his death- 
bed Charles was a scoffer, and he could with 
difficulty be constrained to think of God and 
eternity and the sufferings of Christ, by the 
devout prayers and earnest exhortations of 
Bishop Ken, whose saintly life offered such 
a contrast to that of the royal sinner. 

Let us hope that Ken's work was not in 
vain in the Lord, and that the dying sov- 
ereign, like the man thrown from his horse, 
could say: 

" Between the stirrup and ground 
I mercy sought, and mercy found." 




A I) M T I! A L S I i; W I L L I A M V K N X 



Sorrow and Joy 53 

After the Restoration, Charles the 
Second summoned the Admiral to Whitehall, 
and thus addressed him: ^^ My worthy friend, 
whose heart was ready to aid me in trouble, I 
rejoice to share with you my joy. Knight- 
hood shall be yours, and I appoint you a 
Commissioner of the Navy, and Governor of 
the Fort of Kinsale in Ireland.'' 

When the seaman, at a later time, rose 
from the accolade, or stroke of the sword 
that consummated his nobility, he was happy 
not alone for himself, but for the honor of 
the family. He had been in the throng when 
the King went from the Tower to the palace 
of Whitehall, when little gossipy Pepys ac- 
companied him in his fine velvet coat, which 
might have given him more pleasure had he 
known that his description of himself would 
endure for generations. The son William 
was with the Admiral at this great show. 

Sir William Penn becomes a member of 
Parliament from Weymouth, and the inde- 
fatigable Pepys is glad to note as important 
the fact that he was at church with the Ad- 
miral and his friend Sir William Batten, thus 
shining mth reflected glory. Still the diarist 



54 Penii's Greene Country Towne 

becomes jealous of the Admiral because he 
interfered with his fees of oflSce, and is ready 
to give him and his wife a sly hit on paper 
when he could do so, as he used to think with 
his faithful pen on the secretive diary, hav- 
ing the itch for writing mentioned by the 
Latin poet Horace. He styles the Admiral's 
carriage plain, but pretty. 

In Charles the Second's day the Thames 
was a far more important highway for travel 
and commerce than it is now. The water- 
poet, John Taylor, bewails the coming of car- 
riages in opposition to the barges. He was 
styled " The Swan of the Thames.'' Pope 
wrote of him, in the Dunciad, 

" Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar, 
Once Swan of Thames, tho' now he sings no more." 

King Charles went in his barge to the Par- 
liament-House. There were but two seamen 
in the Parliament, Sir William Penn and Sir 
William Batten. 

The Dutch used to say that old Penn 
would war against them, and this prediction 
is now to be justified. The Admiral hoists 
his flag on the Royal James, and afterward 
takes command of the Royal Charles. But 



Sorrow and Joy 55 

while the Dutch war and matters of state 
occupied the mind of the father, the son be- 
gan to be deeply interested in a more distant 
region. His father and mother die, and leave 
him all their property. He writes to the 
Countess of Falkenstein that they loved him 
dearly and could not do enough for him. He 
adds: ^^ Oh, how good is the Lord! yea, the 
ways of His mercy are past finding out.'' 

The ^' ravishing glory " of the presence 
of God at the death of Thomas Loe, and the 
dying man's injunction to him to bear the 
cross to win the heavenly crown, make a last- 
ing impression on the youthful Penn. The 
immortal life is brought near by the " Glory 
to the name of God ! " which falls from 
dying lips; and the mantle of the man of God 
drops upon his pupil. He writes to Isaac 
Penington, " My soul loved him while living, 
and now bemoans his loss when dead." 

Another death is to affect Penn's future 
life. Persecution and imprisonment in in- 
nocency can be endured; but now his dear 
wife, the joy of life, is to be removed. The 
blessed end is thus described by the husband: 
" She quietly expired in my arms, her head 



56 Pemi's Greene Country Towne 

upon my bosom, with a sensible and devout 
resignation of her soul to Almighty God. I 
hope I may say she was a public as well as a 
private loss; for she was not only an excellent 
wife and mother, but an entire and constant 
friend ; of a more than common capacity, and 
great modesty and humility, yet most equal 
and undaunted in danger; religious, as well 
as ingenuous, without affectation; an easy 
mistress and a good neighbor, especially to 
the poor; neither lavish nor penurious, but 
an example of industry as well as of other 
virtues; therefore our great loss, though her 
own eternal gain.'' 

This lovely woman, whom her husband 
calls " one of ten thousand," left two sons 
and a daughter. These were Springett, 
Lsetitia and William the yoimger. Mary and 
Hannah, the other children, had died in in- 
fancy. 

Gulielma's health w^as broken by trou- 
bles, and the strain of the absence of her 
loved husband in the strange and distant 
land. She died at Hoddesden, away from her 
loved home. Her body was carried thence to 
the sweet and quiet graveyard at rustic Jor- 



Sormw and Joy 57 

dans, where her husband in after days was 
buried at her side, and the picture has often 
met the eyes of Americans. The green 
graves are not far from Chalfont, where be- 
gan the young dreams of a pure love which 
are now renewed in Paradise. 

With God there are no trifles, but what 
looked to man to be a slight occurrence 
affected forever the destinies of Pennsyl- 
vania by turning the mind of its illustrious 
founder westward, Avhither Bishop Berkeley, 
in his day, saw '' the star of empire " gliding. 

In A.D. 1664, Charles the Second 
claimed New England and the country south- 
ward; and, with the old English propensity 
for colonization, looked enviously on the 
Dutch community at Xew ISTetherlands. 
Charles gave a patent to his brother James, 
Duke of York and Albany, to American 
lands, including the New Netherlands. The 
^'High Mightinesses" of New Amsterdam re- 
sisted the aggression; the old story of force 
followed, and the weaker party, as usual, 
went to the wall. New Amsterdam was 
called New York, after the Duke of York, 
who, after the death of Charles, reigned as 



58 PenWs Greene Country Towne 

James the Second. The Jerseys and the 
western shores of the Delaware also came 
under the rule of the British. Oldmixon 
gives the number of Swedes and Dutch on 
the river as three thousand. 

The Duke of York granted the Jerseys to 
Sir George Carteret, intending the tract to 
be called ]^ova Csesaria, to honor the family 
of Sir George, which came from the island of 
Jersey; but the people took the plainer name 
of the Jerseys. The Indian name was 
Scheyichbi. In 1675, West Jersey was sold 
to a Friend, Edward Byllinge, for whom 
Penn became a trustee. Penn, in this w^ork, 
became familiar with Pennsylvania, and 
bought the province, paying for it by the sur- 
render of a claim which his father had 
against the King. There had been a dispute 
between Byllinge and John Fenwick about 
the Jersey property. Penn became arbitra- 
tor, and Fenwick sailed hitherward, and set- 
tled at Salem. Byllinge's-port, on the Dela- 
ware River, keeps in memory these transac- 
tions. 

When Carteret died Penn was one of the 
purchasers of East Jersey lands. In his stu- 



Sorrow and Joy 59 

dent days at Oxford the new Western World 
was in his thought, and now interest and in- 
clination seemed to lead him thither. He 
asked Charles the Second to grant him Penn- 
sylvania in lieu of eighteen thousand pounds 
due his father for services to the British Gov- 
ernment and for money advanced. Lord Bal- 
timore had already received from Charles the 
First a grant for neighboring land, and a con- 
test in boundaries followed which lasted for 
many a long year. In A.D. 1681, Pcnn re- 
ceived his charter, and was made Proprietary 
and governor of the province of Pennsylva- 
nia. 

Now began a life of toil and care, trou- 
ble and disappointment, which might have 
made him wash that he had never heard the 
name of the new province. He would prob- 
ably have been happier in his Irish estates 
with a title like that of his father, but the 
good Lord had other work for him to do. He 
wrote to Kobert Turner that he would have 
called the land Xew Wales, but as the hilly 
country would answer to the Welsh " head," 
(Pen), he transferred his choice to that word 
when the Welsh secretary refused New 



00 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

Wales. He had first proposed Sylvania, but 
the King insisted on having ^^ Penn " added 
to honor the Admiral, the father of William. 
The son feared it might be thought a mark of 
his own vanity, and time has proved that he 
is the one now held in honor. 

It is remarkable that most of the place? 
in Pennsylvania that bear the family name 
are small, but the vast State, which is indeed 
a mighty empire, full of varied and abundant 
resources, holds aloft its distinguished 
Founder, as the city of Philadelphia has 
placed his statue at the summit of its elevated 
City Hall. 

Penn declared that he believed this grand 
possession, procured " through many difficul- 
ties,'' would be blessed by God and made 
^' the seed of a nation." He thought that 
there was room in a new country for his 
" Holy Experiment " of a higher form of na- 
tional life, which he could not have in Eng- 
land. He was a friend and admirer of the 
great Algernon Sidney, who planned an Eng- 
lish republic, but was tried on another charge 
by the infamous Judge Jeffreys; and on in- 



Sorrow and Joy 61 

sufficient evidence was executed, dying 
bravely on Tower Hill, in 1683. 

Penn longed for a land where infamous 
judges would be unknown, and executions of 
the innocent would be impossible. King 
Charles apparently favored his design, ex- 
pressed in the charter, to enlarge his empire, 
to promote trade, and to civilize and Chris- 
tianize the Indians; and further had regard 
to the worthy memory of his friend, the de- 
ceased Admiral. 

Active preparations for the settlement 
were now begun. He printed the charter, 
w^th an account of the country, and gave 
terms of sale of the land, which read very 
queerly at this day, when the price of a lot in 
Chestnut Street, after the passage of two suc- 
cessful centuries, more than equals the 
amount paid for the whole province. One 
hundred acres could then be bought for forty 
shillings sterling, cash, and " one shilling per 
annum forever,^' according to the English 
custom of the day of holding one's hand over 
what he had sold, and claiming a small 
ground rent, even if it were only a few bar- 
leycorns or bushels of wheat, or a red rose. 



62 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

The troublesome quit-rent was a part of the 
first purchase, and could not be completely 
extinguished in the new transfer. Penn is 
said to have held his title from the King by a 
small yearly rent, and so a like rent from the 
purchasers to him was needful to make the 
4:itles valid. Penn's obligation to the King 
seems to have been nominal, unless mines of 
silver or gold were discovered, when one- 
fifth must be reserved. Blackstone defines a 
quit-rent as a payment by which the tenant 
is quieted, or quit, from other service. In 
the Latin it is quietus reditus. Penn himself 
held by feudal tenure, which implies a duty 
or service in return. Allodial tenure is free- 
hold, free of rent or service to any para- 
mount lord. Such are the good tenures of 
the latter times in Pennsylvania. There was 
an ancient idea that all land was vested in the 
sovereign, and the term " the King's high- 
way " is a remnant of the thought. 

Penn kindly warned his countrymen not 
to move rashly, and did not as a speculator 
simply strive to fill his own pocket at the pain 
and loss of others. He wished the intending 
emigrants to consult the Providence of God 



Sorrow and Joy 63 

and the wishes of their relatives, to keep up 
natural affection, and to seek the glory of 
God. 

The newly-made Proprietary gave up the 
oversight of West Jersey, where he had sent 
about fourteen hundred persons. Burling- 
ton had arisen, farms and roads had taken 
the place of forests, and religious meeting- 
houses now stood where sail-cloth tents had 
sheltered the first worshipers. He might 
well rejoice that his fostering care had 
accomplished such great results. 

Penn wished no person having ten thou- 
sand, or more, acres to have over a thousand 
acres in one place, unless within the space of 
three years he would place a family on every 
thousand acres. He ordered that in clearing 
ground one acre of trees should be left for 
every five acres cleared, and mulberry and 
oak trees were to be preserved for the silk in- 
dustry and for shipping. 

The Indians were to have good and hon- 
est wares in return for their furs, and were 
not to be abused. Any wrongdoing to them 
was to be punished with the same penalty as 
if a white planter had been injured. If an 



64 Penn^s Greene Country Toivne 

Indian did an injury, the person injured 
might not take the law into his own hands, 
but must refer the matter to the Governor, 
or his deputy, or to a magistrate, who should 
treat with the Indian king for a satisfaction 
for the complainant. Differences between 
planters and Indians were to be settled by 
twelve men, six being Indians and six whites. 
In this respect he acted as the Swedes had 
done in their kind treatment of the savages. 

Purchasers soon appeared. London and 
Liverpool, and especially Bristol, which then 
stood next to London in commercial im- 
portance, furnished buyers. Among the 
Bristolians were J. Claypoole, Nicholas 
Moore and P. Forde, who, mth others, 
composed a company named " The Free 
Society of Traders in Pennsylvania." 
They purchased twenty thousand acres of 
land in trust, and prepared to undertake 
many kinds of trade. Welsh Friends were 
also purchasers of land. Their descendants 
to-day are among the most important and 
prosperous inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and 
the names of their fatherland are dotted over 
the region where the emigrants first settled. 



Sorrow and Joy 



65 



The earlj comers, with homesick hearts, thus 
recalled dear mother abodes; and their de- 
scendants now strive to keep up the connec- 
tion of the old world and the new by adding 
to the stock kindred appellations. 








" There's a fount about to stream, 
There^s a light about to gleam, 
There's a warmth about to glow. 
There's a floAver about to blow, 
There's a midnight darkness changing into gray, 
Men of thought and men of action, clear the way ! " 

—Charles Mackay. 

For his new settlement Penn prepared 
laws giving to all of its inhabitants that lib- 
erty of conscience for which he had suffered 
so much. He, however, did not allow a licen- 
tious abuse of this liberty in a profane speak- 
ing of God, Christ, the Holy Scriptures, or 
religion; or in the commission of evil. He 
had lost large sums of money and great op- 
portunities of preferment in giving his testi- 
mony to what he deemed to be right, but he 
did not murmur. He would not sell the 
monopoly of the Indian trade to a company 
for a large sum of money, and a jwrtion of 
the profits, as he did not think such action 
right. James Claypole wrote that the Pro- 



Progress 67 

prietary would not discriminate in favor of 
special persons in sales of land, even where 
he would get a larger price by so doing; and 
he added, *^ But he, I believe, truly does aim 
more at justice and righteousness and the 
spreading of Truth than at his own particular 
gain.'' 

Penn instructed his three commissioners 
to be " just and courteous to all," and not to 
offend the Indians, but to let the red men 
'' know that you are come to sit down lov- 
ingly among them." 

It is marvelous that so many ships, with 
enthusiastic emigrants, sailed from England 
to America in Penn's day, there being fifty 
which reached here the year after the coming 
of the Welcome. This is especially noticeable 
when we consider that a large part of the 
emigrants belonged to the quiet and sedate 
Friends. The first emigrant ship, the John 
and Sarah, left London, and by the usual 
long voyage reached America before another 
London ship, the Amity, which did not come 
to the province until the next spring. 

The Bristol Factor, from Bristol, arrived 
at what the Swedes called Copland, or Up- 



68 P cull's Greene Country Towne 

land (now Chester), and there the vessel was 
frozen up in the Delaware. The passengers 
were forced to spend the winter there. 
" What shall we do ? '^ said the tired voy- 
agers, after weeks of weary sailing. " Come 
into our houses," virtually replied the hos- 
pitable Swedes, '^ and where our quarters 
fail, build huts for yourselves, and you will 
find us good neighbors " ; and so they did. 

The fine stretch of hills, now crowned 
with their modern residences, which reach 
from Chester to Wilmington, well justified 
the old name Upland, but new comers desire 
new names, and Sweden must yield to Eng- 
land even in this matter. 

William Markham, a relative of Penn, 
came over in one of the ships, to be Penn's 
secretary, when he should arrive. The com- 
missioners went with him, and Penn sent a 
friendly and religious letter to the Indians by 
them. 

Penn, as a Fellow of the Royal Society, 
hoped to send it scientific information from 
Pennsylvania. 

The death of Penn's affectionate and be- 
loved mother, only a few weeks before he 



Progress 69 

sailed for Pennsylvania, made him ill from 
grief for several days. 

In the governmental arrangements of the 
founder of Pennsylvania, it was wisely and 
devoutly advised that the Lord's Day should 
be duly observed, " according to the good 
example of the primitive Christians and the 
ease of creation." 

William Penn procured from the Duke 
of York, who was afterward the King known 
as James the Second, a release from all 
claims he might have on Pennsylvania, and 
a grant of the " three lower counties," as 
they were called, on the Delaware River, 
which now constitute the State of Delaware. 
This made the free use of the river sure, and 
prevented the trouble which might arise if 
the water entrance to the province should 
fall into other hands. The northern bound- 
ary of Delaware was a circular line, twelve 
miles distant from Kew Castle. 

Thomas Holme, the Surveyor-General, 
who preceded Penn by a few months, lies in- 
terred, among his kinsfolk, in the Crispin 
graveyard, near a grove of trees, on a little 
hill hard by Ashton station, on the Bustle- 



70 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

ton branch, of the Pennsylvania Railroad; 
and a monument honors his memory. The 
line of Susquehanna Street, which was in- 
tended to run from the Delaware River to 
the Susquehanna River, passes near his tomb, 
but the design of a great highway, like the 
four Roman roads of England, was never 
fully carried out. 

Penn himself now prepared to sail. He 
wished that his wife and three children might 
accompany him, but the new land was not yet 
fit to entertain them; and therefore he went 
alone, hoping to prepare an abode for them. 
He was a beautiful letter-writer, and on this 
occasion poured out his heart and soul in full 
measure. It is well that we have such a pho- 
tograph of his real inner life. He touchingly 
charges his wife to be generous to the poor, 
whether they are Friends or not. 

Penn sailed from Deal, on the Xorth Sea. 
His wife and children accompanied him to 
the ship, and many other friends mingled 
their tears ^vith those of the family, as it was 
remembered that months must elapse before 
a word could come announcing the arrival of 
the voyagers at their destination. There 



Progress 71 

were about a hundred passengers, mainly 
Sussex Friends, as Penn's residence at 
Worminghurst was in that county. There 
was much weeping as the vessel left the 
shore, and strong men bowed themselves as 
they looked for the last time on the receding 
native land which held their ancestral graves, 
and many of the living still dear to them. 

As Penn gazed on the fortress of Henry 
the Eighth and Sandown Castle, fading from 
view, he thought of his warlike father and 
grandfather, and of his early desires for mili- 
tary glory; but was thankful that he was now 
going. forth on a ministry of the Prince of 
Peace, not to destroy the lives of his fellow- 
creatures, but to preserve them. In the road- 
stead styled the Do^vns, between the shore 
and the Goodwin Sands, the vessels lay and 
awaited favorable winds. 

About two months brought the Proprie- 
tary and his companions within the Capes of 
the Delaware. Penn exerted a good influ- 
ence in a religious way on the ship, and he 
would have been most happy could he have 
seen the glorious results that were to follow 
this remarkable voyage. 



72 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

When the ship had sailed fourteen days, 
one of the passengers complained of a fever. 
At first he was supposed to be affected with 
the measles or scarlet fever, but the chills 
and pain in the back, nausea and vomiting 
soon showed that the fearful smallpox was 
on this crowded vessel. The fever increased, 
and delirium followed, as the poor man raved 
about the green shores of old England, and 
the family he had left there. Eruptions mul- 
tiplied for five days, and the offensive odor 
made the cabin almost uninhabitable. Penn 
and others strove to minister to the bodily 
and spiritual wants of the poor sufferer, but 
he w^as to take a longer voyage than he had 
expected. He was going " to see the King in 
His beauty " in " the land which is very far 
off,'' and yet so near to all men. With words 
of hope and Christian prayer the patient 
closed his eyes in death. 

It was a beautiful day when the sad 
fimeral of this victim of disease occurred. 
The sun shone brightly on the smiling weaves, 
and the good vessel glided on under a smart 
breeze, unconscious of the mournful burden 
she bore. The body, wrapped in sailcloth. 



Progress 73 

with a weight attached to it, was carried on 
deck by two hardy seamen, and passengers 
and crew stood in awe-struck attention as 
Penn spoke a few w^ords of heavenly hope 
and of Christian sympathy with the family 
of the dead man. Then the faithful shipmas- 
ter, Robert Greenway, read the solemn ser- 
vice of the English Church for the Burial of 
the Dead, changing the form of committal to 
the words, " We therefore commit his body 
to the deep, to be turaed into corruption, 
looking for the resurrection of the body 
w^hen the sea shall give up her dead, and the 
life of the world to come through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." There was not a dry eye on 
the deck as these words were uttered. Then 
the body Avas lowered into its watery grave, 
and Penn reflected upon the words which he 
had heard at the burial of his father and 
mother, and of many a friend. His heart was 
full of heavenly aspirations. 

It is too sad to picture, even in the imagi- 
nation, the death of about thirty of the emi- 
grants of this dreaded disease, and to think in 
what condition the ship must have been when 
sanitary science was so little known. 



74 Penii^s Greene Country Toivne 

Penn reached New Castle on the 24th of 
October, then considered the Eighth month. 
Thence he went to Chester. A barge con- 
veyed him from that place to Philadelphia. 
He was accustomed to such a conveyance on 
the Thames. As he glided along the wooded 
banks of the beautiful Delaware, saw the In- 
dian cabins, the occasional small dwelling of 
the settler, and the site of the old Swedish 
capital at Tinicum, and then ran through the 
Horse Shoe Bend, and beheld the former seat 
of Dutch rule at Fort Nassau, at the site of 
the present Gloucester, how many plans of 
future tasks rushed through his active mind, 
and how blithely the songs of the birds 
cheered his heart for work. 

At Coaquannock, the bold shore with 
high pines, was the point established for the 
infant settlement of Philadelphia, now gro%vn 
to be a mighty giant, known to the end of the 
civilized world. Compare the World's Expo- 
sition held there in late years with this little 
boat, landing on Dock Creek, at " Guest's 
New House," afterwards called the '' Blue 
Anchor Tavern " ! 

Friends, who were already here, and 



Progress 75 

Swedes, and Dutch, and Indians, joyfully re- 
ceived the new ruler. He ate the roasted 
acorns and honiiny of the Indians, and in a 
jumping match with them showed his useful 
athletic training at Oxford by beating them, 
much to their delight. Such physical prowess 
doubtless gave him much influence with his 
red friends. Mrs. Amos Preston, who died 
A.D. 1774, at the age of one hundred years, 
saw and remembered this strange interview 
with the Indians, according to the account in 
" Watson's Annals of Philadelphia." 

Mrs. Preston described Penn as rather 
short in stature, ^' but the handsomest, best- 
looking, liveliest gentleman she had ever 
seen." There was nothing like pride about 
him, but he was affable and friendly with the 
humblest in life. 

Philadelphia streets had been named 
after colonists. Walnut Street was called 
Pool Street, and Arch was Holme's Street, 
and afterward Mulberry, while Chestnut was 
Union. Penn called Market, High Street, 
and named other streets after forest trees 
which were found there. Ten acres of 
ground was reserved for a public square at 



76 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

Broad and Market Streets, where modern 
folly has blocked two fine streets by a mass of 
masonry^ invented apparently for the purpose 
of spending the money of the city. lie 
wished to keep the bank of the Delaware free 
as a promenade, bnt health and beauty have 
given way to trade, and his wise foresight has 
been made of no avail. The town as he 
wished it would have contained ten thousand 
acres; but as the colonists thought this too 
large, he allowed it to be curtailed to about 
a mile along the Delaware, and reaching back 
to the Schuylkill, containing about twelve 
hundred acres. Later exigencies have ex- 
tended the amount to over a hundred square 
miles. 

Penn loved the water. His barge had a 
sail, a boatswain and a coxswain, and six oars- 
men manned it. What was called "• Penn's 
Palace " was rising at Pennsbury, near Tul- 
lytown, and near the Falls settlement of 
Friends, opposite Bordentowm. 

The Proprietary apparently dwelt in 
Chester for a time, and an old house on Penn 
Street, near the river, is said to have been his 
abode. At times he visited Caleb Pusey, 



:- t- ^ ^ 



r X =; 







- - X 



7 =- 







Progress 77 

whose little old stone house still stands on 
Chester Creek, in Crozerville, the ancient 
Upland. Its small room on the first floor, 
with its antique fireplace, doubtless heard the 
worthies discussing the plans for the new 
world, and recalling incidents of their life in 
the old world, until the fading fire and the 
stroke of midnight warned them to retire to 
their humble beds, in rustic chambers which 
would frighten their luxurious descendants 
of to-daj, who reap the harvest which they 
sowed. In this rude simplicity, so different 
from the life he had lived in England, the 
head of Pennsylvania wrote a friend that this 
was a noble place for serving God, and added, 
" Oh, how sweet is the quiet of these parts, 
freed from the anxious and troublesome 
solicitations, hurries and perplexities of woe- 
ful Europe." 

Charles the Second had intended to give 
Penn's father a peerage, with the title of 
Lord Weymouth, but this was frustrated by 
the action of the son in becoming a Friend. 

Some of the colonists had good estates, 
and brought frames of houses with them. 
Others lived in log cabins covered with clap- 



78 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

boards, or bark and turf huts, which served 
as shelters while they were constructing bet- 
ter houses. Caves were also dug in the river 
bank as temporary abodes for the poor. Wild 
pigeons enriched their diet. The Indians 
kindly provided provisions. 

When John Chapman and his wife, near 
Neshaminy Creek, went to Yearly Meeting, 
the Indians came daily to watch over the 
wants of their young family. 

The meetings of Friends were first held 
in private houses. Penn was deeply inter- 
ested in the religious welfare of his new com- 
munity. " One boarded meeting-house was 
set up," Richard Townsend writes, " where 
the city was to be." After " very comfort- 
able meetings " the loving neighbors assisted 
each other in erecting their small houses. 
Such were the " bees " among the more 
northern settlers in later days, when heavy 
work, such as wood-cutting, was divided 
among many hands, and the jovial rustic 
meal sweetened the hard toil, and promoted 
good will. Penn brought a mill, which was 
placed on Chester Creek, and ground corn 



Progress 79 

and sawed boards. Men carried corn on their 
backs for many miles. 

The neck of land forming Philadelphia 
pleased Penn vastly. The water fronts on 
the Delaware and Schuylkill were valuable, 
and the coves and docks and springs, the lofty 
land and pure air were invaluable. Less than 
a year saw about eighty plain houses arise. 

Amid all these encouragements the perse- 
cution of English Friends, the need of assert- 
ing his rights as to the Maryland boundary, 
and the longing desire to see his family, made 
the Proprietary turn his wistful eyes over the 
broad sea once more. He had spent thou- 
sands of pounds in promoting the welfare 
of the Indians. He made a league of friend- 
ship with nineteen Indian nations, covering 
all the English in America. He laid down 
excellent laws. Philadelphia, his capital, had 
nearly three hundred houses and twenty-five 
hundred inhabitants, and there were twenty 
other townships. Clarkson places the whole 
population at about seven thousand. 

Before embarking Penn gave the Provin- 
cial Council authority to act in his place, 
Thomas Llovd beino- Pre'=ident, and receivinsf 



80 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

from him the Great Seal. In August, 1684, 
the Proprietary sailed homeward, regretted 
by the country, for he had been just and kind 
to all. On the vessel he wrote a letter to 
Thomas Lloyd and others, to be communi- 
cated to the Friends' meetings, in which he 
says: — 

" And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin set- 
tlement of this province, named before thou 
wert born, what love, what care, what ser- 
vice, and what travail has there been to bring 
thee forth and preserve thee from such as 
would abuse and defile thee ! 

'' O that thou mayest be kept from the 
evil that would overwhelm thee: that, faith- 
ful to the God of thy mercies, in the life of 
righteousness, thou mayest be preserved to 
the end ! My soul prays to God for thee, that 
thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that 
thy children may be blessed of the Lord, and 
thy people saved by His power. My love to 
thee has been great, and the remembrance of 
thee affects my heart and mine eye. The 
God of eternal strength keep and preserve 
thee to His glory and thy peace ! 

" So, dear friends, mv love asjain salutes 



Progress 81 

you all, wishing that grace, mercy and peace, 
with all temporal blessings, may abound 
richly amongst you. So says, so prays your 
friend and lover in the truth, 

" William Pexn." 

This beautiful epistle shows how its 
writer had so fully idealized his darling city 
that she had become human to him, and as a 
personal friend; and he ever seemed to re- 
joice in that relation, ever kept her in mind, 
and ever strove for her welfare at home and 
abroad through crowds of difficulties. ISTow 
he receives the due honor which was often 
denied him in life. Posthumous honor is the 
truest praise; for the thoughts of men in life 
are dimmed by suspicion and distrust, and a 
knowledge of human frailty, which is the lot 
of every child of man; but real nobility 
shines the brightest in the deepest night of 
affliction, and so it was in this case. 




iHutations. 



The world goes up and the world goes down, 

And sunshine follows the rain; 
And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown 
Can never come over again, 

Sweet wifej 
No, never come over again." 

—Charles Kingsley. 



Penn's work in England, in changing 
reigns, was very difficult. Dancing attend- 
ance on courts and seeking royal smiles is 
never an easy task. The Wise Man in Prov- 
erbs said, '^ The wrath of a king is as mes- 
sengers of death: but a wise man will pacify 
it. In the light of the king's countenance is 
life: and his favor is as a cloud of the latter 
rain." 

William Penn was born in the reign of 
Charles the First, and lived in the reigns of 
Charles the Second, James the Second, Wil- 
liam and Mary, Queen Anne, and George the 
First, and also under the rule of the Protec- 



Mutations 83 

tor Cromwell, and the short tenure of Crom- 
welFs son Richard. So the septuagenarian 
had seen eight rulers in England, and experi- 
enced tempestuous storms in Church and 
State, ever in mature life singing songs of 
peace, while his countrymen were ever mak- 
ing ready for battle. 

He strove earnestly to use the influence 
at court which he had inherited from his 
father, and which he maintained by spotless 
integrity, to mitigate persecution, and to ob- 
tain the freedom of captives, whether of his 
own faith or not. But men who have kingly 
favor are oftentimes burned by its light. The 
jealous ones called him a trickster and a 
Jesuit in disguise, and repeated foolish 
stories, which calm minds would have dis- 
missed with a sneer. The old Latin motto 
reads. Inter arma leges silent, and while civil 
laws are too often silent in the din of the 
alarms of war, tongues and pens rage with 
sad rapidity. 

It is natural that when worldly interests 
and life are at stake the red-hot fever of 
anger should emit a flame, and fire does not 
alwavs distinguish friends from foes, as in 



84 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

the battle's smoke men wrongly fire at their 
own comrades. When governmental matters 
were mixed with spiritual ones, and the Prov- 
ince of Pennsylvania and the Maryland 
bounds claimed by Lord Baltimore were 
mingled together, an audience with the King, 
or his prospective successor, the Duke of 
York, was a very troublesome and uncertain 
affair, especially as the moods of a sovereign, 
or a court, are likely to be variable, and af- 
fected by other interests than those of the 
last suppliant, who deems his own case the 
most important. 

This volume may not dwell on the long 
and disappointing struggles with the law, and 
the whims of the great, which distressed and 
wore out the spirit of the founder of Pennsyl- 
vania. At one time, he says, he was well re- 
ceived at court as the proprietor and gov- 
ernor of a royal province; at another he was 
arrested at a Friends' meeting, and again in- 
formed of for meeting with the Whigs. In 
all these troubles and perplexities this man, 
who was far ahead of his day, pleaded for 
liberty of conscience. 

In the winter of 1684-5 the death of 



Mutations 85 

Charles the Second occurred by apoplexy, 
and his brother James, the Duke of York, 
succeeded to the throne as James the Second. 
James was the friend of Penn, who strove 
to be loyal to him. Toleration in religion, 
and the opening of prisons, came on this 
king's accession. 

When England had been shaken by dis- 
sension, James the Second was driven from 
his throne, and William and Mary came into 
power, it is striking to read that little Phila- 
delphia, too, had her internal troubles. Penn 
writes to the magistrates about excesses in 
the caves, which he declares are his property, 
intended for the use of poor emigrants. 

Thomas Lloyd, a minister among Friends, 
had performed the executive functions of the 
government, as President of Council, and af- 
terwards as Chairman of the Commissioners, 
for years. He became weary of his task. 
Penn released him, and appointed Captain 
John Blackwell, a British officer, who was 
not a Friend. In writing to Lloyd the Pro- 
prietary styled Pennsylvania ^' my worldly 
delight." 

When the " Act of Toleration " was 



86 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

passed, Penn felt that one of the greatest ob- 
jects of his tarrying in England was accom- 
plished, and desired to return to his colony. 
The new governor was not a success, and had 
disagreed with the Council and the Assem- 
bly. Thomas Lloyd again came into power. 
Penn suggested to the Provincial Council 
that they should name several deputy gov- 
ernors, and begged them to be at peace with 
God, in faith in Christ, " in this momentary, 
troublesome, busy world." 

In A.D. 1689, Penn instructed Thomas 
Lloyd, President of the Council, to set up a 
school. Thus arose the '^ Friends' Public 
School," incorporated in 1697, with a new 
patent in 1701, and another charter in 1708. 
The present charter was given by Penn in 
1711. The scholar in classical literature, 
George Keith, was the first teacher. He was 
originally a minister of prominence among 
Friends, but afterward became a clergyman 
of the Church of England. 

Penn still looked toward America, but 
government troubles detained him, and the 
prison again received him. The death of 
George Fox deeply affected him; his dying 



Mutations 87 

words, '' William, mind poor Friends in 
America," rang in Penn's ears, as '' x\rise, 
ye dead, and come to judgment," did in those 
of St. Jerome. 

In Pennsylvania, troubles arose between 
that province and Delaware. The Scotchman, 
George Keith, had lived in England, and 
traveled with Penn on the continent. He 
now set up a separate meeting, and then went 
to England, and was ordained a clergyman of 
the English Church by the Bishop of London, 
who had the spiritual oversight of this region. 

In 1792 William and Mary gave the juris- 
diction of Pennsylvania to Benjamin 
Fletcher, the Governor of New York. 

A new and sharp affliction arose in the 
death of Penn's excellent vdie. For nearly 
three years he withdrew from the world, and 
prayed and wrote. He proposed in '' An Es- 
say toward the Present and Future Peace of 
Europe " what the world has lately seen in 
that beautiful " House in the Wood " at The 
Hague, where, among the surrounding trees, 
a Congress met to talk of universal peace, 
and then the nations began to show their de- 
pravity by practicing war. 



88 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

The elfort of Penn and his wife to be 
just toward their rulers is indicated by the 
fact, given in Agnes Strickland's " Life of 
Mary Beatrice/' wife of James the Second, 
that Gulielma Penn made an annual pilgrim- 
age to the Court of St. Germain, carrying- 
presents from the friends of the exiled king 
and queen, and was received by them affec- 
tionately, though she claimed that the revo- 
lution was necessary. 

Difficulty arose in Pennsylvania about mil- 
itary demands, which the Friends opposed. 
Fletcher appointed the cousin of Penn, Wil- 
liam Markham, lieutenant-governor. He 
himself was afterward relieved of his post, 
and the government was, in 1694, returned to 
Penn by William and Mary. The colonists 
had seen to their cost how different was the 
mild rule of Penn from that of a military 
governor. This year Penn made Markham 
lieutenant-governor. Thomas Lloyd had 
lately died. He was a man beloved and hon- 
ored by all, a Welshman, educated at Oxford, 
and a worthy minister of the Society of 
Friends. He did not seek office, but office 
sought him. He was the only one of the 




lli;illllll'n!ll|||Pl!ll|l1|i n i M ii v i n !i!|) m 



11 A N N A Jl (A L LOW II I L L 



Mutations 89 

early governors of Pennsylvania whose con- 
duct pleased both Penn and the people, and 
he died at the early age of forty-four. Be- 
fore dying he declared that he had " fought 
the good fight and kept the faith." 

After Penn was reinstated in his govern- 
ment, in 1G94, the English people had a reac- 
tion in his favor, and he held large religious 
meetings in various parts of the kingdom. 

In 169G there came a turn in the life of 
our hero, which we must note. He had held 
a large meeting in Bristol, the home of his 
father. His powerful exhortations on the 
higher spiritual life moved some to tears. In 
the audience he recognized his friend of early 
days, Hannah Callowhill, daughter of the 
prominent merchant, Thomas Callowhill, and 
granddaughter of the great merchant, Dennis 
Hollister, who were Friends. Her sweet 
face and sympathetic look haunted him after 
the excitement of his address was over, and 
his anxious mind, contending between the 
kindred emotions of love and religion, would 
not allow him to sleep. 

He recalled his early days of restful hap- 
piness with Guli, who had answered to his 



90 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

every smile and gentle word, giving him dou- 
ble payment for his affection. Then the train 
of reflection brought up the birth of the chil- 
dren, and the faith with which the innocent 
babes were laid away with tears in their 
mother earth, to await a joyful resurrection 
when Christ should come in the heavenly 
clouds with His holy angels. How many 
united cares had hung around the three chil- 
dren who survived, and what pleasant days 
two congenial souls had seen in religious jour- 
neys. How much self-denial there was in 
Guli's mind and heart when she allowed her 
dear husband to go to a new and wild land; 
and how she pined away in his enforced ab- 
sence, though sharing his hopes of a new em- 
pire of peace across the wilderness of waters ! 
Then came the sad summons home to look 
once again on the sweet lily before it faded, 
and after that the weary days of watching de- 
clining health after the glad meeting; and 
next the dying-bed, and the final messages of 
undying love, and concerning the children's 
welfare when they should be motherless. 
Death claimed his own, and a new beauty 
passed over the face so dear to him, as La- 



Mutations 91 

vater notes the wondrous charm of the still 
countenance which has lost the look of care, 
and the wrinkles that mark the milestones of 
time ; and the smile, as on Cowper's face, de- 
noting the entrance to a higher and a happier 
state. He kept his Rizpah w^atch, and then, 
like Charles the Second, of Spain, gazed on 
the corpse of his wife, trying to pry into the 
hidden mysteries of the future state, but was 
compelled to give up the vain search. By- 
ron's poem on Greece illustrates the feeling: 

'• He who hath bent him o'er the dead 
Ere the first day of life is fled, — 
The first dark day of nothingness, 
The last of danger and distress. 
Before Decay's eflfacing fingers 
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers,— 
And marked the mild, angelic air, 
The rapture of repose, that's there." 

The rising of the sun found Penn still 
cogitating on the days that were gone, and 
yet turning hopefully to the future, as he 
cries, " I am loyal to the past, but must seek 
the good of the present. Guli's name shall 
ever be dear to me, and in the coming world, 
where marriage, according to the Master, is 
unknown, Guli and Hannah shall be as sis- 



92 Penn'^s Greene Country Towne 

ters. My business and family and religious 
affairs are pressing on me, so that my brain is 
nearly bursting. When I leave a prison, or 
fight a governmental cabal, at home or in the 
colony, I need a sympathetic heart to com- 
fort and advise me. I will do what millions 
of my fellow-men have done, and what I 
thought needless until to-day. I will seek 
the love and the hand of Hannah Callow- 
hill." 

As the morning progressed the uncon- 
scious Hannah was sitting at the window of 
her father's fine mansion, driving her busy 
needle, as the stitches flew through a snowy 
garment. She sees a well-known and revered 
form approaching in the dignity of manly 
beauty, and herself opens the door to wel- 
come William Penn. 

'' Good morning, Hannah,'' says the vis- 
itor. 

" Good morning to thee," replies the fair 
hostess. 

" We had a sensible blessing in the good- 
ly motions of the Spirit in our meeting yes- 
terday," remarked the minister, " and I ob- 
serv^ed that thou wast not unmoved." 



Mutations 93 

"Indeed I was not, Friend William. I 
have heard of the crowds that have attended 
thy meetings in the open air, and may God 
seal thy testimony for Truth in the salvation 
of many poor souls, who may shine in heaven 
in thy crown of rejoicing." 

Penn answered, " Thank thee, kind heart, 
for thy blessed words of comfort to a wearied 
soul, and I wish to drink deeper of this re- 
freshing stream. Thou knows the many hard 
cares of my most toilsome life. At this pres- 
ent time my poor Springett hangs between 
life and death, and is ripe for the kingdom. 
His Christian humility and his retiring and 
soft tenderness in our meetings show that his 
bright mind is looking heavenward, and the 
Master is calling for him, as He did for Mary, 
the sweet sister of Lazarus, in the ancient 
day. William and Tishe are a grief and pain 
to me. Whence they got their strange hu- 
mors I cannot tell; certainly not from their 
sainted mother; and their father humbly tries 
to walk in the ways of the Lord. The sick 
one and the well ones need a woman's tender 
care; my hand is not soft enough to soothe 
the brow of my dear Springett. Thy sweet 



94 Pernios Greene Country Towns 

face and tender words would lighten our 
household. I think that my concern for thee 
is the leading of the Holy Spirit. Wilt thou 
be mine ? " 

Hannah sat through this long speech with 
her eyes on the carpet, in pleased wonder that 
the thought that had already entered her 
heart had become the ruling idea in the mind 
of him whom she had so highly honored, but 
never expected to claim as her very own. 
She had no speeches to make, but rose and 
gently placed her hand in that of the earnest 
pleader; and with a blushing cheek parted 
her lips only to whisper, '^ I am thine." Such 
a salute followed as would not have shamed 
the " holy kiss " of the primitive Church, 
mentioned in Holy Scripture, or such as the 
angels may use in heaven. 

That hour was a memorable one for both, 
and also for the future of the infant settle- 
ment. The business-like daughter of the 
Bristol merchant was to be a tower of 
strength to Penn and Pennsylvania. During 
the final weary years of the illness of 
her husband, with the assistance of the 
faithful James Logan, she guided in 



Mutations 95 

large measure the fortunes of the new 
province, and with rare wisdom and dis- 
cretion. She 'looked well to the ways 
of her household," managed wisely and 
successfully the financial and other problems 
Avhich had broken down the health of Wil- 
liam Penn; smoothed with her devotion the 
troublous pathway of his last years, and then 
dutifully closed his eyes, and gave her faith- 
ful testimony to his holy life. 

The next Thursday, in Friends' meeting, 
the two parties ^' passed meeting,'' or re- 
ceived the approval of both the male and fe- 
male assemblies; and the brave Hannah, as 
she held her future husband's hand, and de- 
clared her purpose, was less moved than her 
spouse, who could endure a prison or a mob, 
but was very nervous over a few words of be- 
trothal said before a company of his fellow- 
believers. The betrothal, which comes from 
Jewish days, is common in Germany, and 
forms a part of the service of the English 
Church, is wisely used by Friends, making 
marriage respectable, and by its notice in 
public, as in the publishing of the banns, 
checking improper marriages. 



96 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

This being over, in a short time the 
marriage followed. At a public meeting 
the pair, in Friends' fashion, married 
themselves by declaring that they took 
each other as husband and wife, for a 
loving and faithful wedded life, ^' until 
death should separate them," trusting 
in " Divine assistance '' to keep their solemn 
pledge. The woman received her new name, 
and the certificate was signed by many wit- 
nesses, as a good custom to certily the mar- 
riage, and keep up a memory of the signers. 
Many an old American certificate to-day re- 
calls the names of families who would other- 
wise be almost forgotten. 

There was a quiet, but sumptuous enter- 
tainment at the Callowhill mansion, and the 
willing captive went to her husband's home, 
in a union of hearts as well as hands. The 
walks along the deep cut formed by the river 
Avon, the visits to see the relics of St. Mary's 
Church, RedclyfPe, and the various sights of 
old Bristol, became a pleasant memory as the 
new life called to fresh duties and joys. The 
care of Springett now fell into skillful hands 
and there was no ^^ lack of woman's nursing," 



Mutations 



97 



until the last words were heard: "I am re- 
signed to what God pleaseth. He knows 
what is best. I would live, if it pleased Him, 
that I might sen^e Him; but, O Lord, not my 
will, but Thine be done." 



W>'*tlAL5.,".:-'*«"'rfr _ 





E\}t Wittnxn. 



' There shall be sung another Golden Age, 
The rise of empire and of arts, 
The good and great inspiring epic rage, 
The wisest heads and noblest hearts: 

'Not such as Europe breeds in her decay; 
Such as she bred when fresh and young, 
When heavenly flame did animate her clay. 
By future poets shall be sung. 

Westward the course of empire takes its way: 
The four first acts already past, 

A fifth shall close the drama with the day: 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

—Bishop Berkeley. 



When Peter the Great was working at 
Deptford, Penn called on him, with other 
Friends, and gave him books in German ex- 
plaining their principles. The Czar of Mus- 
covy received them pleasantly, and some- 
times went to the meetings of the Friends in 
that place, and Penn afterward wrote him a 
letter. When in Prederickstadt, in Holstein, 
assisting the Danes in opposition to the 



The Return 99 

Swedes, the Czar made an arrangement to 
have a meeting of Friends held, and attended 
it with several of his officers, and, as '' Story's 
Journal,'' quoted by Janney, relates, com- 
mended the doctrine then taught. 

In September, O. S., A.D. 1699, Penn 
sailed from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, on 
his long-delayed return to his province. 
When the ship Canterbury appeared at Ches- 
ter, December 1st, O. S., 1699, after a three 
months' voyage, the colonists were glad that, 
after an absence of fifteen years, the Proprie- 
tary had come to make a home with them, 
bringing his family. The evening before, 
Penn had come up in his barge to the house 
of Lydia Wade, not far from Chester, which 
he reached after dark. Thomas Story met 
him there, and spent the night ; while doubt- 
less many a story of early politics and busi- 
ness occupied the fleeting hours, as they 
talked of things which would have consumed 
too much time in writing. The next day, 
when the peaceful governor landed on Ches- 
ter creek, a number of young men, contrary 
to the magistrate's order, "fired a salute 
' with two small sea-pieces of cannon.' " An 



100 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

accident occurred, which cost the loss of an 
arm to one of the young men. Penn kindly 
paid the expenses of the surgeon and the sup- 
port of the youth until death followed, and 
then he met the charges of the funeral. The 
governor went to Philadelphia, and was 
gladly received there. 

The yellow fever, which had been 
brought from Barbadoes, and was called 
the Barbadoes fever, and which after- 
wards at times grievously affected the new 
city, had claimed of late more than two hun- 
dred victims, touching nearly every house. 
A solemnity hung over the town, and jesting, 
feasting and worldly pleasure stood aside, 
awed by the direful calamity. Still the 
Friends determined to hold their yearly 
meeting, and it was a solemn one. Xo one 
attending it was smitten. 

The coming of the cheerful Penn light- 
ened the gloom, and the fact that his family 
were in his company seemed to promise that 
he was to make a home among his loving peo- 
ple. 

James Logan wrote to William Penn, Jr., 
wlio was in England, about the reception of 




JAMES LOGAN 



The Beturn 101 

his father. Logan's birthplace was Lurgaii, 
Ireland, though, his parents were Scotch, and 
had held estates in Scotland, which, had been 
confiscated in the conspiracy of the Earl of 
Gowrie. The son knew Latin, Greek and He- 
brew before he was thirteen years old, and in 
his sixteenth year mastered Laybourn's 
Mathematics without instruction. His father 
was a teacher in the English Bristol, and 
James assisted him. He came with Penn as 
his secretary. He became the Secretary of 
the Province, Commissioner of Property, 
President of the Council, and Chief-Justice. 
This bright man was literary and scientific, 
and was a correspondent of European men of 
learning. His country-seat was Stenton, now 
at Wayne Junction station, in Germantown, 
where distinguished strangers who visited 
Pennsylvania were hospitably entertained. 
He was a patron of learning, and presented 
his valuable library by will to the Library 
Company of Philadelphia, and it is now 
known as the Loganian Library. Although 
he was a Friend, he was in favor of military 
defence. His business and prudence made 
him a great aid to Penn. In person Logan 



102 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

was tall, and in manner graceful and digni- 
fiedj kind and attractive. Tlie letters which 
passed between him and Penn were toilfully 
copied and published to the world by the 
faithful Deborah Logan, the widow of Dr. 
George Logan, who died at Stenton in 1821. 

Stenton is still an attractive, old-fash- 
ioned country-seat, and lovers of athletic 
games are familiar with its aspect of antique 
dignity as seen from the neighboring cricket 
grounds. 

Deborah Logan wrote of her husband's 
ancestor, James Logan: 

" Enamor'd of the fame 
Of him who reared these walls, whose classic lore 
For science brightly blazed, and left his name 
Indelible. By honor, too, approved. 
And virtue cherished by the Muses' flame." 

Stenton is supposed to have been finished 
in 1728. It is a quiet and dignified mansion 
of brick, suited to the character of its master. 
The large hall gives a hearty welcome. It 
used to be thought a palace, and was the 
scene of many an ancient feast, where were 
gathered the most notable figures of the col- 
onial society. Scriptural paintings on 



The Beturn 103 

the old fireplace tiles remind one of the 
lessons learned by Dr. Doddridge from his 
religious mother from similar scenes. The 
woodwork is remarkable. An underground 
passage ran from the house to the barn as a 
means of escape in time of danger. Tradition 
says that visiting Indians have slept on the 
old stairway. The chief Wingohocking loved 
Logan, and asked liim in Indian fashion to 
exchange names with him. Logan told the 
Indian that he might have his name, and he 
would give that of the Indian to the creek 
on the Stent on estate. William Wirt used 
the name of this chief to illustrate Indian 
oratory. 

Deborah Logan is buried in an old grave- 
yard near the mansion. She copied thou- 
sands of pages of letters of Penn, Logan and 
others, found neglected, mouldy and torn in 
the attic, adding notes. She worked in the 
early morning, and wrote a poem entitled 
" The Hour of Prime." She was the grand- 
daughter of Penn's friend and coworker, 
Isaac Morris, Sr., whose letters appear in the 
Logan Correspondence. He was Chief-Jus- 
tice of Pennsylvania when he died. Deborah 



104 Penn^s Greene Couniry Towne 

Logan, as a young girl, heard the Declaration 
of Independence read in the State House 
yard, and as a matron she entertained Wash- 
ington at Stenton, and visited Mount Vernon 
with her husband. 

In the Revolution it was ordered that 
Stenton should be burned, when seventeen 
houses between Philadelphia and German- 
town were fired for alleged aggressions from 
some of them. Two men came to bum Sten- 
ton, and told the colored housekeeper to take 
her property out, while they went to the barn 
for straw to set the house on fire. A British 
officer rode up seeking deserters. The quick- 
witted housekeeper replied that they had 
gone to the barn to hide in the straw. The 
officer cried: " Come out, rascals, and run be- 
fore me into camp ! " They protested, and 
alleged their commissions, but the Logan 
house, with its important manuscripts, was 
saved. This faithful woman was buried in 
the garden at Stenton. 

Deborah Logan wrote an account of 
James Logan, as she was very conversant 
with his history. One morning in June she 
had risen very early, and was at work at her 



The Return 105 

copying, as the fragrance of the roses was 
wafted into the open windows of the upper 
room which had been the library of Penn's 
secretary. She had been for a day or two 
toiling over a letter from Logan to Penn, on 
which the mice and the mould had been con- 
tending for generations, and where it was 
hard to name the victors. Her sleep had been 
disturbed by the puzzle, and she caught her- 
self in waking talking aloud about it. She 
gazed fixedly at the portrait of Logan which 
hung on the wall before her for a time, and 
then addressed it, as if it were alive: '^ Hon- 
ored ancestor of my worthy husband, I deep- 
ly wish that thou couldst unravel my rid- 
dle ! " 

So engrossed w^as she in the thought, and 
so closely did she feel the relation with him 
who had occupied her life-work for years, 
that she felt no wonder when the counte- 
nance moved, the eyes looked kindly dow^n on 
her, and the lips parted to explain the diffi- 
culty, and then added more instruction, thus: 

'' Dear child of my house, I thank thee 
for the great care which thou hast taken to 
preserve the memory of my governor, Wil- 



106 Penn^s Greene Country Towns 

liam Penn, and that of my less wortky self. 
I trace my ancestry back to a Baron of Res- 
talrig, and am most nobly connected, as one 
of our race married a daughter of Robert the 
Second, who granted him the Grugar lands in 
a charter addressed to ' Militi dilecto fratri 
suo.' (' To his well-beloved soldier brother.') 
Sir Walter and Sir Robert Logan were asso- 
ciates with Sir James Douglas in the glorious 
band of Scotch chivalry, who strove to com- 
ply with the dying request of Robert Bruce 
to carry his heart to the Holy Sepulchre. 
The Logans fell under the walls of Granada, 
fighting with the Moors. The heart of the 
hero was brought back and buried in the 
monastery of Montrose. Sir Robert Logan 
ouce defeated an English fleet. 

" I was born in Ireland of a Scotch fam- 
ily. My wife Sarah Reed was ever a true 
helpmeet to me. I ever tried to perform the 
business of William and Hannah Penn most 
faithfully, and they treated me as a brother. 
I was for a time the President of the young 
Province. For forty years I served Penn, and 
when I wished to retire, sickness fell on him, 
and for six more years I continued my work. 



The Return 107 

I loved the dear Indians, and they loved me. 
. . . I labored to lead a Christian life, and 
to lead others Heavenward, and was not dis- 
appointed of my hope. . . . My worthy 
granddaughter, so spend thy earthly years 
that the eternal years at God's right hand 
with Christ may be thy lot." 

The eyes closed, and the face resumed its 
expression of placid repose, but the amanuen- 
sis went on with her toil cheerfully, and 
never forgot the pleasant hour which had 
brightened her tasks, and left a glow behind 
it like that of the setting sun. 

Logan, in his seventy-third year, was in- 
vited to resume the presidency of the Prov- 
ince, but declined. His son William was a 
member of the Provincial Council, and 
benevolent in giving the Indians land for a 
settlement, and in educating them. Deborah 
Logan's husband. Dr. George Logan, was a 
Ignited States Senator, and visited France to 
stop the war between France and America, 
if possible. He met Talleyrand. An act of 
Congress w^as passed, which is " sometimes 
called the Logan Act." In after years, he 
again went to France, hoping to show English 



108 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

statesmen the poor policy of the conduct 
which induced the war of 1812. " Blessed 
are the peacemakers," said the Master; let 
us honor his good deeds. He was an ac- 
quaintance of Sir Samuel Romilly, Wilber- 
force, Thomas Clarkson, Coke, the Duke of 
Bedford, and the Marquis of Wellesley. 

Deborah Logan survived her husband 
eighteen years, living through the Revolu- 
tion. Mrs. Ow'Cn J. Wister gives a sketch of 
her in ^' Worthy Women of Our First Cen- 
tury," edited by Mrs. Wister and Miss Agnes 
Irwin. Sally Wister's Journal was kept for 
the use of her " Dear Debby x^orris," after- 
ward Mrs. Logan. Conarroe painted her por- 
trait when she w^as over seventy. 

In Deborah Logan's day, on her first go- 
ing to Stenton, the estate, which had already 
been divided, stretched from Fisher's to IN'ice- 
town Lane, and from the Germantow^n turn- 
pike to the Old York Road. It lies in a beau- 
tiful country, and Washington was delighted 
with its fine grass and tasteful improvements, 
while he kindly noticed the children there. 
During the Revolution Stenton was for a 
time the headquarters of General Howe. 



The Eeturn 109 

Another character of importance in 
Penn's day was Colonel Robert Quarry. He 
was a British Judge of the Admiralty, whose 
duty it w^as to see that the revenue laws were 
enforced. He was a leader of the English 
Church folk, and opposed Penn. He wished 
the pirates to be checked. They had become 
very powerful in the new w^orld, and men of 
high standing were ready to share their ne- 
farious gains. Penn accomplished this, and 
when he was present in the colony his per- 
sonal influence was very great, but he was 
absent so many years that there was much 
dissension, and it was very difficult to guide 
the ship of state when the commander was 
not on deck. 

That age had not advanced to our present 
standard. Penn was a slaveholder, in accord 
with the custom of his day, but he desired to 
make marriage the rule of the colored peo- 
ple, to raise their standard of morality. The 
office of Quarry, and that of the advocate, 
John Moore, of the same court, made them 
independent of Penn, and of the Legislature, 
and it was their interest to be in the opposi- 
tion. So thev sent to the Board of Trade in* 



110 Penn^s Greene Country Towns 

London complaints and highly-colored re- 
ports. 

Another colonial character was David 
Lloyd, a Welshman and a lawyer. He had 
been a captain in Cromwell's army, and Penn 
made him Attorney-General. He was an 
able man, of fair character, but disturbed 
himself and the people. As a maintainer of 
the rights of the people he acquired much in- 
fluence, and brought many of them into op- 
position to the government. He also had 
difficulty with Colonel Quarry, who accused 
him of disrespect to the King, of insulting his 
commission and the seal of the Court of Ad- 
miralty, of saying of the picture on the seal, 
" What is this ? Do you think to scare us 
with a great box [meaning the seal in a tin 
box] and a little baby ? " [That was the pic- 
ture.] He said, " Tis true, fine pictures 
please children; but we are not to be fright- 
ened at such a rate.'' 

When Penn went in his barge from 
Pennsbury to Philadelphia, he used to stop 
at Burlington to see Governor Jennings, of 
T^ew Jersey. Once the governor was smok- 
ing with his friends, and heard that the barge 




JOHN V K N N . " T II K A M K K I C A N '" 



The Return 111 

of the Proprietary was approaching. They 
put their pipes aside, for fear of annoying 
him. lie came in sooner than he was ex- 
pected, and said that he was pleased that they 
had had enough propriety to be ashamed of 
their actions. Jennings answered, " We are 
not ashamed, but stopped to avoid hurting a 
weak brother." 

A visit to an Indian cantico, or fair, was a 
pleasant diversion for the Penn family. 
Logan notes the money spent on such an oc- 
casion by the mother and the children, and 
even by the Governor, as w^ell as by Hannah 
Carpenter; and the comfits show that 
youngsters liked candy as w^ell then as they 
do to-day, though it was probably of a sim- 
pler kind. 

The Penn family were held in high es- 
teem by their neighbors. Isaac Norris wrote 
of the son, John, " the American," who was 
born at Trent's slate-roof house, in Philadel- 
phia, that he was ^^ a lovely babe," and that 
Hannah Penn was " extremely w^ell beloved 
here, exemplary in her station, and of an ex- 
cellent spirit, which adds luster to her char- 
acter, and has a great place in the hearts of 



112 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

good people. The governor is our Pater Pat- 
rice, and his worth is no new thing to us; we 
value him highly, and hope his life will be 
preserved till all things now on the wheel are 
settled here to his peace and comfort and the 
people's ease and quiet." 

We can see William and Hannah Penn, 
as they sit on a summer day on the banks of 
the bright Delaware, as the rippling breeze 
dances over the waves of the wide river, and 
hear them talking of the joys and sorrows of 
colonial life, and the hopes of brighter days 
for themselves and the colonv. Sad tidins^s 
come of the misdoings of the son William in 
the motherland, and at times the father 
blames himself sorely for having left him 
among the temptations of the gay society of 
London; and then he thinks of the good he 
is doing to the many now, and in the future, 
when the unborn shall bless his gentle rule. 
Hannah hears of deaths and sicknesses at 
home among her beloved ones, and grieves 
that by the time the letter arrives announc- 
ing their illness they may be dead and buried, 
and that it is impossible for her to reach 
them to help or solace them. 




" Not always fall of leaf, nor ever spring; 
No endless night, yet no eternal day; 
The saddest birds a season find to sing; 

The roughest storm a calm may soon allay; 
Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all, 
That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall," 
—Robert Southwell. 

The Greek word '' Migma," which gives 
a title to this chapter, signifies a mixture, 
and is used to imply a compound of made 
dishes or of medicine. It here refers to the 
miscellaneous character of the matters to be 
treated of, and might fitly be applied to this 
whole volume. 

The virgin world of which Pennsylvania 
was a specimen, is supposed by some to have 
been known to the ancient world. The fol- 
lowing passage from the mouth of the 
Chorus in Seneca's Medea is certainly a 
most remarkable one : ^' The sea has now 
yielded, and patiently endures all laws. Xo 
Argo compacted by the hand of Pallas, and 



114 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

impelled illustrious by the oars of princes, is 
now sought after: any vulgar bark safely 
wanders over the deep. Every ancient boun- 
dary is removed, and cities have placed their 
new walls in new lands. The pervious globe 
has left nothing in the situation where once 
it was. The Indian drinks the cold Araxes: 
the Persians taste the Elbe and the Rhine. 
In late years ages shall arrive when the 
ocean shall relax the bounds of the universe, 
a mighty land shall be laid open, Tiphys 
shall unveil new wonders, and Thule shall no 
longer be the utmost extremity of the earth.'' 
Tiphys was the pilot of the ship of the 
Argonauts. " Ultima Thule " are the words 
used by Seneca, and the ancients called 
Thule the extreme of the earth, though they 
did not know its position; it was supposed to 
be in the most northerly parts of the Ger- 
man Ocean, perhaps Iceland, or a portion of 
Greenland, or the Shetland Isles. The 
Greek navigator, Pytheas, first mentions it, 
saying, " It is six days sail from Britain," and 
that the climate is a " mixture of earth, air, 
and sea." It has generally been located as 
the Faroe Islands. Suidas savs it was named 



Migma 115 

from Thuliis, its most ancient king. The 
Greek Antonius Diogenes composed a ro- 
mance on '^ The Incredible Things Beyond 
Thule," which has produced many similar 
tales. There is something so mysterious 
about an unknown world, that it is no won- 
der that romance loves to dwell on its mys- 
teries. Thomson, in his '^ Seasons," calls it 
" farthest Thule," and the old ballad runs: 

" There vas a king in Thule 
Who loved liis true love truly." 

The wonderful island of Atlantis had a 
similar history, and it is claimed to have been 
America. The wonders crowded into both 
these stories have been more than made good 
in this new country, and Pennsylvania alone 
may be considered a theater of romance 
almost passing belief. Seneca may have 
learned of America from Diodorus Siculu? 
and others, it having been, it was thought, 
discovered by the ancient sea-loving Phoe- 
nicians driven there by a tempest. The 
" Gallio, deputy of Achaia," before whom St. 
Paul was brought, was named Annaeus 
Seneca Xovatus, and afterward adopted bv 



116 Penti's Greene Country Towne 

Junius Gallio. He was a brother of the phil- 
osopher. 

Centuries have rolled away since men 
guessed dimly about new worlds beyond the 
sea; but now they were not only found, but 
settled; and we will come back on a 
fine summer morning, and behold Han- 
nah Penn, in Pennsbury, as she is sit- 
ting in a true motherly w^ay by the 
side of her babe, John, '^ the Ameri- 
can." A pretty little barefoot girl is walk- 
ing up the avenue, with some berries and 
cottage cheese, which her mother sends to 
show her good-will to the wife of the Gov- 
ernor, who had sent her dainties in her ill- 
ness. The door is open, and the awestruck 
maiden peeps into what the rustics call a 
" palace," and fears to enter. 

^' Come in, my little Mary," says the mis- 
tress of the house. ^' How are thy good 
mother and father and the children ? " 

" Very well, I thank thee," responds the 
damsel, " and mother sends thee a little pres- 
ent, and hopes that thee and the Governor 
and little John are well." 

" Thank thy mother for me," replies 



Migma 117 

I-Iannah Pcnn; '' and tell her that I am soon 
coming over Welcome Creek to see her. 
Here is a nice red apple for thee. The scion 
came from Maryland, and William is proud 
of it." 

Hereupon John proceeds to show his 
independent sympathies for the equal rights 
of the oppressed, by waking up with a loud 
yell, and the pretty and delicate woman 
grasps the babe in her arms to quiet its wail 
on her gentle breast, while Mary departs to 
live to tell her great-grandchildren the tale 
of her youth. The story of Sutcliff, about 
Penn taking little Rebecca Wood on his 
horse, as she w^as going from Darby to Hav- 
erford meeting, betrays a kind heart. 

Thrice daily Penn assembled his family 
at Pennsbury for the worship of God. Once 
he was lodging at a house in Merion, and a 
lad peeping through the latchet-hole of the 
door saw him kneeling in prayer at his bed- 
side, and heard him thank God for a pro- 
vision in the wilderness. 

Domestic affairs at Pennsbury ever in- 
terested the great man. He sends orders for 
milk and baking pans, w^hich Betty Webb 



118 Perui^s Greene Country Towne 

may select, and for Indian meal, which 
proves that he had learned to use this Ameri- 
can luxury. Indian corn is now one of the 
great staples of life, and grows on Italian 
plains, as well as on the hills and valleys of 
this new world. He wishes to be at the w^ed- 
ding of Captain Richard Hill and Hannah 
Deleval. 

Penn was rather averse to lawyers, and 
preferred to settle things in his own way. 
Judge Guest represented the law, but 
Thomas Story, who had been a lawyer, gave 
up that profession when he became a minis- 
ter among the Friends. The persons who 
were employed at Pennsbury were ^^ John 
Sotcher, steward; Hugh Sharp, gardener; 
Robert Beekham, man-servant; Mary Lofty, 
housekeeper; Ann Nichols, cook; Dorothy 
Mullers, a German maid; and Dorcas, a 
coloured woman." The Friends held meet- 
ings for the negroes, and Penn declared in his 
will that his slaves were to be free, but the 
conditions of the will do not appear to have 
been observed. The Governor and Council 
strove to Christianize the Indians. 

The danger of losing his power in the 



Migma 119 

Province by its falling to the crown led Penn 
to return to England. ^' Poor Phinehas Pem- 
berton " was then dying, though he had 
'' crept to meeting," as Penn writes Logan, 
and he adds, " I am grieved at it, for he has 
not his fellow, and without him this is 
a poor country indeed." Penn's wife and 
daughter, " Tishe," would not stay in 
America without him, and Samuel Carpenter 
\vas ready to excuse the young woman, who 
must have naturally had more interest in the 
life of England, with its society, than in the 
dull existence of an American colony. The 
Proprietary had a great desire to return 
hither, and his interest was in Pennsylvania, 
as he had given his English and Irish estates 
to the children of his first wife. 

His Indian friends came to say good-bye. 
They declared that they did not break cove- 
nants, and they now renewed their old ones. 
One smote his hand on his head thrice, say- 
ing that they did not make their covenants in 
their heads, but, striking his breast three 
times, declared that they made them there, 
in their hearts. Hither came the great and 
good Sachem, Tamanend, who is said to be 



120 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

buried in the soil of Pennsylvania, but whose 
name has been adopted by the Tammany So- 
ciety of Xew York, and also Cannassetego, 
the Chief of the Onondagas, who loved 
Logan, and, when he discovered him 
sick, said in Indian fashion, that he 
" found him hid in the bushes," was 
among the visitors, with words of true 
friendship. !N'aaman, the noble chief, 
who gave the name of l^aaman's creek to 
what is now Claymont, on the northern bor- 
der of Delaware, and l^anne Seka, Keka 
Rappan, Tong Goras, and Espan Appe were 
present, with two hundred Indians. Many 
fair words were spoken, but one there was 
who was not in accord with the general sen- 
timent in favor of the white man. He bold- 
ly stood up and declared that the Great 
Spirit had given the land to their forefathers, 
who had fished and himted at their pleasure 
on it, and now Penn and his friends had 
come, and not only become owners of it, but 
wished to give it to their children, thus alien- 
ating it forever from the ancient true and 
rightful owners, who trusted God, and never 
bequeathed land to their offspring. This 



Migma 121 

speech of our Indian friend really indicates 
the feeling of some of the wiser red 
men when they saw their soil slipping 
away from under their feet, as if by 
a tidal wave. When Nicholas Scull was 
surveying land in what is now Monroe 
County, Pennsylvania, an old Indian laid his 
hand on his shoulder saying, " Put up iron 
string, go home," and the surveyor obeyed. 
The savage knew that the dreaded instru- 
ment meant loss of home and property and 
ancestral graves. 

Then arises the old and sad query. Have 
savage nations a right to the soil? Does a 
man who pretends to discover a country, 
which had been discovered and populated 
ages ago, have a right to dispossess the in- 
habitants by force ? The answer has been 
written in blood at the death of Guatemozin, 
in Mexico, and at that of Atahuallpa, by 
Pizarro's cruel treachery, in Peru; and too 
often elsewhere in fair America, as the In- 
dian has been pressed onward to the setting 
sun, and has cried with, the ancient British 
that he was driven to the sea, and the raging 
sea drove him back upon his enemies. He 



122 Pemi's Greene Country Towne 

has replied with the blazing torch and the 
bloody tomahawk, and the question is yet 
being answered, as fraud and the greed oi 
gain are pushing the original owners of oui 
land into the Pacific ocean, and we have not 
the grace to fully Christianize and civilize 
the poor remnant of the natives who pre- 
ceded us in this good land. We keep up the 
names of the towns and creeks as a poetic 
fancy, and then neglect the aborigines. Still 
many there are who are really striving to 
undo this wrong, and raay God richly bless 
their efforts to establish righteousness in this 
country. 

But we must stop this digression, return 
to the broad meadows on the bank of the 
Delaware at Pennsbury, and behold the In- 
dians in picturesque groups on the sod, sit- 
ting down to enjoy the rich feast given by 
the Proprietary, who was greatly pleased in 
seeing their happiness. The table was loaded 
with a hundred turkeys, and venison was not 
lacking. The rude sons of the forest did 
ample justice to the good cheer, with many a 
grunt of deep satisfaction. The chief Col- 
kamicha made a speech of thanks, and the 



Migma 123 

Indians performed a little dance, which 
pleased the whites by its grace and agility. 
Then the older chiefs advanced to the Gov- 
ernor, and with many a profound salaam 
bade him farewell, wishing him happiness 
and health in this world, and joy in the Bet- 
ter Land, when the Great Spirit should call 
him home. 

Penn replied with words of love, his 
family received the polite greetings of the 
natives, and then these guests silently and 
gravely marched through the old cherry 
hedge to the highway, and disappeared. They 
were never again on earth to behold the 
kindly face of their benefactor; but may we 
not believe that some of these faithful souls, 
who strove to serve God according to their 
light, have met him whom they loved in the 
Paradise of God, where wars and troubles 
and property questions may not vex the 
hearts of the dwellers above ? — where, as 
Pindar sings, 

"They till not the soil. 

They vex not the wave, 
They toil not. never, no, never; 

But in the islands of the blest 
They are happy forever and ever." 



124 Perm's Greene Country Towns 

These " Fortunate Islands," or " Islands 
of the Blessed/' beyond life's tumultuous 
sea, have been the thought of poet and seer 
from Greek days to the early times of 
America, and the magnificent glories of the 
setting sun will ever be a foretaste of that 
other world where rest and joy follow the toil 
and disquiet in this state of existence, where 
too often the more one toils for his fellow 
men the more heartaches and disappoint- 
ments and lack of appreciation follow him. 

Penn, in expressing his reluctance to 
leave the Province, where he had attempted 
to set everything to rights, declared to the 
Assembly that he had promised himself '* the 
quietness of a wilderness." In treating with 
the Assembly of property affairs it is note- 
worthy that the old quit-rent of a himdred 
acres of land was one bushel of wheat per 
annum, but he would not promise that the 
same low rate should be maintained in the 
territories now constituting Delaware, 
whence an appeal came, as the property 
might rise in value, and there had been ex- 
pense in the long controversy with Lord Bal- 
timore about the Marvland boundarv, which 




:SAAC NORRIS 



Migma 1:^5 

the Council had promised that the public 
should pay. 

Isaac Xorris wrote of the " excellent 
wife " of the Governor, before her depar- 
ture, that her friends sorrowed heavily at her 
leaving them, and that her " wonderful even- 
ness, humility and freedom, her sweetness 
and goodness, have become her character, 
and are indeed extraordinary. In short, we 
love her, and she deserves it." 

Xow delightful Pennsbury, with its 
trees and flowers, the favorite horses, kind 
neighbors, and loved domestics, the affection- 
ate Indians and the pleasant religious meet- 
ings, must all be left, and the uncertain sea 
must be braved for a long voyage. Andrew 
Hamilton, a former governor of East and 
West Jersey, is appointed Deputy-Governor, 
and James Logan is appointed Provincial 
Secretary and Clerk of the Council. 

After the return to England, Penn sent 
his son William to the Province, directing 
Logan to have oversight of him, as he was in- 
clined to be wild. He wished him to live at 
Pennsbury, and have '' no rambling to Xew 
York, nor mongrel correspondence. He has 



126 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

promised fair; I know he will regard thee/' 
writes Penn to Logan, and he goes on to say, 
^' He has wit, kept the top company, and 
must be handled with much love and wisdom; 
and urging the weakness or folly of some be- 
haviours, and the necessity of another con- 
duct from interest and reputation, will go 
far. And get Samuel Carpenter, Edward 
Shippen, Isaac ^N^orris, Phinehas Pemberton, 
Thomas Masters, and such persons, to be soft 
and kind and teaching; it will do wonders 
with him, and he is conquered that way. Pre- 
tends much to honour, and is but over-gener- 
ous by half, and yet sharp enough to get to 
spend. All this keep to thyself. Fa/e." 
The kind father's hope of secrecy was de- 
stroyed by the actions of his son on his 
arrival in the Province. 

The father was kept in England by the 
danger of the supersession of the proprietary 
government by the crown. In 1702, William 
the Third died. Queen Anne, daughter of 
James the Second, and mfe of Prince George 
of Denmark, succeeded him on the throne. 
Penn presented an address to her from the 
Friends, and was graciouslv received. 



Migma 127 

Colonel Quarry's opposition still troubled 
Penn. The Churcli of England people were 
disaffected to the Quaker governor. The 
Friends were losing their majority in num- 
bers, and were not ready to serve in military 
affairs, and thus lost prestige. In 1702, 
Logan thought that, the city having over half 
the inhabitants of the Province, two-thirds 
were not Friends, but that the larger part of 
the country residents were members of that 
body, which made about an equal division of 
opinions in the whole Province. The 
Churchmen had been used to exclusive privi- 
leges in England, and wished more than 
equality here. They desired that Pennsyl- 
vania, like the Jerseys, should be made a 
royal province, and declared that they were 
persecuted. Penn considered this an un- 
founded accusation, and wished a paper 
signed to contradict it. Logan tried to get 
leading men to sign it, but without avail. 
They maintained that the clergy- of the Eng- 
glish Church should have the same standing 
as in the mother coimtry. 

The Proprietary considered the idea of 
selling his government to the Cro\\Ti, accord- 



128 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

ing to the advice of some of his good friends. 
Even Logan was ready to adopt this, if 
" good terms for thyself and thy people " 
could be secured. The faithful Secretary 
had a hard work to do, and the Governor a 
harder one; and the son William complicated 
matters greatly by his pecuniary demands. 
The father was kept in hot water. He set- 
tled a part of his Irish rents on William, and 
he was in debt, with a large interest to pay. 
He exhorts Logan to do all that he can in the 
trade in furs and skins, which he thinks more 
profitable than tobacco. His letters are a 
constant wail of real poverty in high station. 
He was indeed land-poor, and would have 
been happier if he had never heard of his 
costly and ungrateful province, where his son 
was heaping up his sorrows until, if he had 
not learned to seek the pitying grace of the 
all-loving God through His blessed Son, he 
would have been heart -poor as well as purse- 
poor. 




^^rf 




England, with all thy faults, I love thee still, 
My country! and while yet a nook is left 
Where English minds and manners may be found, 
Shall be constrained to love thee." 

— William Cowper. 



Penn's ideas were intensely English, and 
his plans for government, and for the sale 
of land, show this at every turn. In the Ber- 
muda Islands the traveller can see the Eng- 
land of generations ago crystallized, and they 
may be said to be almost more English than 
the modern England of to-day in the home 
land. If steam, and the newspaper, and the 
endless inventions of modem life had not 
come to bless America, we might have been 
in a similar position now, especially if we had 
not broken the leading-strings which bound 
us to Old Albion with its white cliffs. It was 
natural to think of the new land as a repeti- 
tion of the old one. When the young farmer 
takes a new place, he strives to follow his 



130 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

good father's precepts in agriculture, the 
young bride carries on her household as her 
dear mother did, and tradition still rules the 
world; though its force is partly broken by 
the intense restlessness which stirs business 
by invention, and stimulates travel and the 
imitation of foreign countries. 

In South Carolina, about Charleston, 
which had close water connection with Eng- 
land in early days, there lingered a touch of 
the grand and hospitable life of the English 
manor-house of old times; and in Virginia, 
along the James River, in those large plan- 
tation abodes, the life of early days on 
British soil was long repeated. The whole 
manor system which was developed here in 
Penn's day, and that of his descendants, was 
calculated to bring in a set of proprietors 
who, with their large holdings, would have 
been virtually like the English nobility, and 
the poor would have had slight chance for 
advancement. 

The names of the manors are quite a his- 
tory of national and family life. Amster- 
dam, Rotterdam, and Williamstadt have an 
eye toward Holland, the home of Penn's 



New Albion 131 

affectionate mother, to whom deserved honor 
is given. The last-named tract was given to 
William Penn, Jr., and contained 7,482 
acres. This was bought by Penn's friend, 
Isaac Norris, and Xorristown and Xorriton 
township preserve the memory of the trans- 
action. Euscombe refers to the English 
home of the Proprietary. Pennsbury, the 
Governor's own manor, had 8,431 acres 
within its wide bounds. Three Springetts- 
burjs loyally kept in memory the beloved 
first wife of Penn. One of these is marked 
as Springett Penn's property. The first sur- 
veys in Pennsylvania were not done with 
great care, and resurveys were sometimes 
needful; but when land was almost as free as 
water a few acres did not matter much. 
Springfield is assigned to Gulielma Maria 
Penn. Gulielma shows a fashion of Latiniz- 
ing names. It would be equivalent to Wil- 
liamette. Stoke Manor recalls the splendid 
Stoke Park, with its ancient chureli, sup- 
posed to be the scene of Gray's Eloirv. 
w^hich estate belonged to the Penn family in 
later days. It is near Windsor, and the 
Penns were friend? of rovnltv. If has now 



132 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

passed out of the hands of the family. Cal- 
lowhill Manor was a memento of the faithful 
second wife of Penn, and a street in Phila- 
delphia also bears her name. Fermor refers 
to the titled lady Julianna Fermor of the 
Penn family, who is also commemorated by 
a street in Easton. Letitia Aubrey's Manor 
brings in another family name in the case of 
the daughter of William Penn. Mount Joy 
Manor was also her property. Sir John 
Fagg's Manor, and Moreland Manor may be 
mentioned. The last was called from the 
English attorne}^, ]^icholas Moore, who held 
high office in the Province under Penn. His 
Green Spring farm lay on the Comly Road, 
between Bustleton and Somerton. The two 
Morelands are named for him. He had a 
lockup, and was privileged to use pun- 
ishment in the case of those under his em- 
ploy. The manor-holders seem to have been 
like English justices of the peace. 

Nicholas Moore had a davighter Mary, 
who brightens our page with a touch of 
romance. 'Not far from her father's abode lay 
the old Pennypack Baptist Church, which is 
now the oldest organization of that body in 



New Albion 133 

Pennsylvania, the one at Cold Spring liaving 
passed away. Elias Keacli, the son of a noted 
divine and author in England, came to this 
land, pretending to be a clergyman, when he 
had not been ordained, for a little amusing 
experience. He was preaching, and suddenly 
began to weep, and then informed his hearers 
of his deception. The Rev. Thomas Dungan, 
of Cold Spring, near Bristol, took the young 
man in charge, and he became an excellent 
clergyman. He married Mary Moore, and 
returned to London, where he was a useful 
minister of the Gospel. There were some of 
his descendants in this country. 

While Penn gave his city a Scripture 
name, the divisions were of English origin. 
We find him lodging in the London Kensing- 
ton, and Southwark perpetuates another 
noted part of London. 

In 1704, William Penn, Jr., arrived in 
Philadelphia. Colonel Hamilton wa^; dead. 
John Evans came w^th young Penn as 
Deputy-Governor. He was only twenty-six, 
but Penn, w^ho was lenient in judging the 
character of those wdiom he loved, thought 
that this son of an old friend was ^' sober aii<l 



134 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

sensible/' and ready to receive advice. These 
young men at first made a good impression in 
the colony; and Logan hoped for much from 
them. Samuel Preston thought Penn's son 
was like his father, and of a sweet temper and 
elegant speech, though he desired for him 
more of his father's zeal. The Indians came 
to Pennsbury to meet him, and Judge Mom- 
pesson and Logan also went to the inter- 
view. Logan writes that. the son of Penn 
stayed at Pennsbury for the w^edding of 
Clement Plumstead with Sarah Righton 
(formerly Biddle). 

The English Church began to grow, and 
St. Mary's in Burlington, [N'ew Jersey, and 
St. Paul's, Chester, were the new-born sis- 
ters of old Christ Church, Philadelphia. 

Young Penn was among those added to 
the Provincial Council by Governor Evans, 
but he attended little, as pleasure was his 
great aim. The Governor proved a boon- 
companion. Let us look in on the precious 
pair of rulers one night in a public house. 
They have imbibed more than they can mas- 
ter, and are the servants of strong drink. 

" Take another alass of this Scotch whis- 



New Albion 135 

key/' cries Penn. '^ This is a feaii'uUy dull 
town, anyhow. I wish the old gentleman 
would call me back to London, where there is 
some life. But let us get a little pleasure 
here." 

The Governor was right willing to have 
as much liquor as his friend desired to pour 
out, and soon the hot blood is rising in their 
faces, and their speech grows thick and husky 
and foolish as the overcharged brain-cells are 
stupefied, and the head temporally para- 
lyzed. 

Soon a sound is heard on the street. It is 
the watchman's rough voice, as he calls out, 
^* Eleven o'clock, a starry night, and all's 
well." 

The dignitaries hear the sound, and think 
it would be a fine joke to override their 
menial; so they shout out a drinking song. 
The guardian of the peace pauses in his quiet 
round, rubs his sleepy eyes, and looks at the 
house, knowing that the legal hour of closing 
has long passed. He enters, thinking some 
rude roysterers are violating the majesty of 
the law, and that his appearance will soon 
settle the matter. 



136 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

The Governor and young Penn insolently 
demand his business. With old English pluck 
he replies, " You are breaking the law, and I 
arrest you.'' 

'' Impudent varlet," cries the Governor, 
" don't dare to lay your hand on me." 

"That's right," cries William; "take 
that, you blackguard," and a sudden blow on 
the head fells the poor man to the floor, 
where a few extra kicks are given by the 
worthies, who are exercising the noble privi- 
lege of the abuse of power, as old a pleasure 
as the days of Roman emperors. 

The Mayor and Recorder and one alder- 
man were brought into the row, while tra- 
dition says that young Penn wanted pistols, 
but the lights were put out, and Alderman 
Wilcox, pretending not to know the Gover- 
nor in the darkness, gave liim a thrashing, 
making the blows stronger when he an- 
nounced his dignity, as if he were slandering 
the true Governor by such an assertion. The 
case was brought to law, but the offenders 
could accomplish nothing, while the disgrace 
remained. 

Young William Penn sold his manor of 



New Albion 137 

Williamstadt to William Trent and Lsaac 
Norris for £850. It contained seven thou- 
sand acres, and is now Norriton Township, in 
Montgomery County, and includes Xorris- 
town. The father wrote to Logan. " He is 
my greatest affliction, for his soul's and my 
country's and family's sake." The young 
man returned to trouble his good father in 
England, who blamed what he called " the 
bad Friends' treatment " of him. But it is 
hard for a father or the best of friends to 
know how to treat a reprobate, though mercy 
is ever a divine gift. 

Colonel Quarry and David Lloyd were 
not in accord with the Proprietary, but 
Samuel Richardson, Nicholas Wain and Isaac 
Xorris were attached to him. 

Governor Samuel W. Pennypackor's 
exact pen has recorded a sketch of Kichard- 
son in his " Historical and Bioorai>hic'al 
Sketches." In 1686 he came from Jamaica, 
being a bricklayer, and bought 5,880 acres of 
land, and two large lots on High Street, now 
Market. He was a Friend, became a mer- 
chant, and owned all the north side of High 
Street, between Delaware Kiver and Second 



138 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

Street. When William Bradford, in A.D. 
1688, undertook to publish a '^ house Bible " 
of large size, he and Samuel Carpenter were 
appointed to see that the subscriptions of this 
first American attempt of the kind were 
rightly applied. 

Richardson was a provincial councillor. 
He had a plantation of 500 acres near Ger- 
mantown, and owned horses, cattle and sheep. 
Pastorius's note-book states that his grand- 
children could be sent to school for four- 
pence per week. There was a Friends' meet- 
ing at his house. His wife Elinor died, and 
he married again, and settled in the city. 
The country place was named Faii*field, and 
has been owned by the Copes, Harts and 
Garretts. It lies on the Old York Road. 
When Richardson was Alderman the new 
city was poor, and when a set of brass weights 
was needed, Griffith and John Jones were 
ordered by the Town Council to buy them at 
a cost of twelve pounds and twelve shillings. 
They gave their individual notes, and took an 
obligation from the corporation, which was 
often presented, but was not paid until the 
expiration of five years. 



New Albion 139 

Joseph Richardson, a son of Samuel, mar- 
ried a daughter of John Bevan, and the wife 
of Mr. Bevan was Barbara Aubrey, the aunt 
of the William Aubrey who married Letitia 
Penn. The plantation at Fairfield was given 
to Joseph, son of Samuel Richardson, by his 
father. The eldest daughter of Joseph, 
named Mary, married William Hudson, one 
of the v^ealthiest of the early merchants in 
Philadelphia, who was mayor in 1725. lie 
was related to the navigator, Henry Hudson. 
Ann was the wife of Edward Lane, of Provi- 
dence Township, in Philadelphia County, and 
her second husband was Edmund Cartledge, 
of Conestoga, in Lancaster County. Eliza- 
beth was married to Abraham Bickley, a rich 
merchant of Philadelphia. Some of the best 
known families in Eastern Pennsylvania are 
descended from this family. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Drink(^r, whose Jounial 
w^as edited by her descendant, Henry D. Bid- 
die, dwelt at Fairfield in the summer time. 
The Drinker Journal is an interesting view 
of Philadelphia in Revolutionary and yellow- 
fever times, and is a pretty picture of th(^ 
simplicity and hospitality and peace-loving 



140 Penn^s Greene Country Towns 

spirit of the early Friends of that day. The 
Drinkers lived at the comer of Front Street 
and Drinker^s Alley. 

Logan names Xicholas Wain, with 
Samuel Richardson, as '^ two or three good 
men." The first Mcholas Wain came over 
with Penn in the Welcome. '' Lang Syne/' 
William McKoy, is quoted in Watson's 
" Annals of Philadelphia " as speaking of 
the ministers among the early Friends thus: 
^' James Pemberton, Nicholas Wain, Daniel 
Offley, Arthur Howell, William Savery and 
Thomas Scattergood were the then ^ burning 
and shining lights.' " '^ ISTicholas Wain ap- 
peared at all times with a smile of sunshine 
on his countenance." He was humorous, and 
when two aged females had certificates of 
removal passed in meeting, he artfully said in 
the women's meeting that they did not state, 
according to custom, whether they were clear 
of all marriage engagements, causing a gen- 
eral smile in the assembly. Although he was 
humorous, as a minister he was digTiified, 
earnest and impressive. His oldest son was 
named William. " Wain Row " arose where 
his residence had boon in the square between 



New Albion 141 

Walnut and Chestnut and Seventh and 
Eighth Streets. 

William Masters went to London, and 
claimed the hand of Letitia Penn, who de- 
clared that she had never been engaged to 
him. At a later dav there was a marriage 
between the Penn and Masters families. A 
street in Philadelphia bears the name of the 
last-named family. 

William Aubrey married Letitia. He 
was descended from Sir Peginald Aubrey, 
one of the Xorman conquerors of Wales. 
The son-in-law proved a dear investment to 
Penn, and the mercenary claims of the son 
William and the new applicant nearly dis- 
tracted the good man. Aubrey was a sharp 
merchant, and wished his wife's portion de- 
livered more speedily than the father's means 
would permit. Penn wrote to Logan, " Both 
son and daughter clamour, she to quic^t him 
that is a scraping man, and will count interest 
for a guinea; — this only to thyself: so that 
I would have thee fill his attorney's hands as 
full as thou canst." Logan found this dith- 
cult to do, and says he is '' one of the keenest 



142 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

Government affairs still troubled Penn, 
but Deborah Logan claims that the free prin- 
ciples wliich he instituted in Pennsylvania 
had an effect on the whole of our country, 
and that posterity should be grateful for his 
noble work. The Middle and Southern 
States have not had due historical regard, be- 
cause the historians of this land have been 
in large part Xew Englanders, and have nat- 
urally described their own affairs more 
minutely than those of other people. 

Governor Evans strove to uphold Penn's 
interests in the Assembly. There was little 
money in the colony, the times were hard, 
and David Lloyd was a constant thorn in the 
side of the Proprietary. In 1705, Logan is 
pleased that a new Assembly contains what 
he thinks the best choice they have had, in- 
cluding Edward Shippen, S. Carpenter, Rich- 
ard Hill and Caleb Pusey, members of Coun- 
cil, and " many more very good heads," as I. 
Morris, J. Growden, Rowland Ellis, R. 
Thomas and Richard Pyle, " very honest and 
pickt men.'^ 

Governor Evans's rule was irregular and 
unconstant. To brins^ a hisrher idea of the mil- 



New Albion 143 

itary necessities, he pretended that a Frcncli 
fleet was coming to attack Philadelphia. The 
militia kept guard for two nights, people cast 
their goods into wells, women were made 
very ill, and many Friends fled; but the fraud 
only brought indignation and disgust on 
the head of the young and unwise governor. 
William Biles had said, " He is but a boy; he 
is not fit to govern us; we will kick him out," 
and the governor had had him imprisoned for 
it; but now the more prudent were dis- 
pleased. Penn wrote advising Evans to act 
fairly, and there followed some improve- 
ment, but it came too late. The people could 
not pass over his arrogance and improper life. 
The Proprietary soon after selected Colonel 
Charles Gookin as a new governor. 

Philip Ford, in overclaims in property 
matters, was also giving Penn great troublr 
in England. He had Penn arrested on false 
charges, and we find the poor man again in 
prison in the Fleet, but he was cheerful in 
his misfortunes. He had good lodgings, was 
fairly comfortable, held meetings in the 
prison, and had visitors. The Fords asked in 
law to be put in possession of Pennsylvania, 



144 Perm's Greene Country Towne 

and we may imagine the result if this fraudu- 
lent claim had been allowed. Penn was 
about nine months in the prison bounds. He 
still longed and hoped to return to his be- 
loved Pennsylvania and to settle his children 
among those millions of broad and rich acres 
which had been the care and trouble of so 
many long years; but, like Virgil's bees, he 
was to make honey for others, but not for 
himself. He wrote to Friends in Pennsyl- 
vania concerning his " poor minors," that he 
wished to settle plantations for them; ^' for 
planters, God willing, they shall be in their 
father's country, rather than great mer- 
chants in their native land." 

In all these afflictions Penn, like Job, 
maintained his integrity, and Janney proper- 
ly quotes the applicable words of Isaac I^or- 
ris concerning him, '^ God darkens the world 
to us that our eyes may behold the greater 
brightness of His kingdom." 

Lieutenant-Governor Gookin reached the 
colony in 1709. He was the grandson of Sir 
Vincent Gookin, '' an early planter in Ire- 
land, in King James the First and King 
Charles's dav«." Penn savs that he has an 



New Albion 



145 



excellent character, and intends to spend his 
life in Pennsylvania, '^ if not ill treated," and 
" to lay his bones, as well as substance, 
among you." 





a dlebrr Hittle CToton* 

" In that delightful land which is washed by the 
Delaware's waters, 

Guarding in sylvan shades the name of Penn the 
apostle, 

Stands on the banks of its beautiful stream the 
city he founded. 

There all the air is balm, and the peach is the em- 
blem of beauty, 

And the streets still re-echo the names of the trees 
of the forest. 

As if they fain would appease the Dryads whose 
haunts they molested." 

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 

When the Provost of the Swedish 
Church, the Reverend Ericus Biorck, went 
from Christina, in Delaware, now known as 
Wilmington, to the small town where Pastor 
Rudman, who had selected him as his fellow- 
laborer, was conducting the work of Gloria 
Dei, or Old Swedes' Church, he records his 
\asit thus: ^' We went up to Philadelphia, a 
clever little town," and Rudnian's letter to 
Professor Jacob Arrhenius, at Upsal, styles 
it, " a clever town, built by Quakers," whose 



''A Clever Little Town'' 147 

**' population is very thin and scattered, all 
along the river shore." 

We also will go up again to the ])lac(' 
where Penn says the eyes of Europe were 
turned in his day, and where they are still 
turned. One of the greatest of cities of the 
old world has just collected the curiosities of 
many lands, which have attracted crowds to 
behold them; as, years ago, the nations of 
the world walked through the streets of Phil- 
adelphia when a World's Fair drew their 
steps hitherward. The Europeans of Penn's 
time, finding their own lands in trouble, 
looked in this direction for peace and quiet, 
and wished for the blessings enjoyed here; 
and, wdth all our faults, we still prove a 
blessed haven of rest to the downtrodden and 
oppressed peoples of the old world. 

In 1712, the Friends seem to have con- 
trolled the Assembly, as an act was passed 
'' to prevent the importation of negroes and 
Indians into the province." However,' the 
crown nefariously annulled this righteous 
law, as the British then desired to get riches 
by buying and selling the bodies and souls of 



148 Pernios Greene Country Towne 

human beings, of a like flesh and blood with 
themselves. 

Penn, in England, busied himself with re- 
ligious meetings, and with writing on relig- 
ious subjects. In 1710, he left the vicinity of 
London, and w^ent to a pleasant country-seat 
at Ruscombe, where he spent the remainder 
of his days. Being in debt to the friends 
who aided him in the Ford trouble, and find- 
ing it difficult to govern his province, he de- 
termined to sell it to the crow^n, and years 
had passed in negotiations, according to the 
red-tape customs of ancient and modem 
times. The unsuitableness of his son Wil- 
liam to succeed him in the rule of the colony 
may have been an additional motive to this 
action. 

Still, he wished to keep up his " free col- 
ony for all mankind," and to carry on a gov- 
ernment in accord with the principles of 
Christ. Janney claims that this ideal had 
been more nearly carried out in this case than 
in any other recorded instance; and the 
founder of Pennsylvania hoped that if peace 
came to Europe, he might abide in quiet hap- 
piness with his family at Pennsbury, and see 



" A Clever Little Town " 149 

his plans perfected, while the evenin^z; of life 
passed calml}^ awav. He also was anxious to 
secure liberty in religion for the Friends in 
Pennsylvania, and " political privileges for 
the people ^' ; and his insisting on these things 
in negotiating with the cabinet delayed the 
contract for years. At last the terms with 
^* our truly good queen," as he styles Queen 
Anne, w^ere agreed upon, and the governor 
intended again to visit his dear Pennsylvania, 
like Jacob, to settle his '^ young sons and 
daughter upon good tracts of land." 

" Man proposes, and God disposes," runs 
the wdse French proverb. He had an attack 
of what Hannah Penn called a " lethargic ill- 
ness," and a second attack came on suddenly, 
so that his hand was paralyzed as he was 
writing to Logan, and he could not finish the 
sentence. In this business letter he mentions 
the " mad, bullying treatment " he had re- 
ceived from his son-in-law, Aubrey, coneem- 
ing money affairs, and that the need of funds 
for him had forced certain business action; 
and he gives as a cause " my son's tempestu- 
ous and most rude treatment of my wife and 
self, too." This refers to Aubrey. 



150 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

The illness occurred at Bristol, where the 
father and mother of Hannah Callowhill had 
died. The invalid returned to Ruscombe, 
where a third attack came, and for six years 
he declined to the grave. His mind was 
broken, but his spiritual sense was alert, and 
his good wife called it " his translation." His 
heart still overflowed with love to God and 
to man. The wife was obliged to take up 
business matters, as William the younger 
" was, by his intemperate habits, rendered 
unworthy of trust, if not incapable of busi- 
ness." 

Hannah Penn was an extraordinary wo- 
man, but she had to struggle with debt, an 
expensive family and colonial affairs, as the 
sickness of her husband stopped the sale to 
the crown, though Penn had received a thou- 
sand pounds as an advance payment. A 
young family to educate and a sick husband 
to care for kept her hand and heart busy. 
However, the colony became more prosper- 
ous. When peace returned, in 1713, she set- 
tled the mortgage, and complaints seldom 
came from Pennsylvania. Logan continued 
his faithful services, to his own pecuniary 




K I (11 AIM) I'KNN. 1' ;;<<! i; I i: I A i: v 



''A Clever Little Town'' 151 

loss. "Governor Gookin was recalled, and Sir 
William Keith appointed in his place. 

Penn died on the thirtieth of July, 
A.D. 1717, in his seventy-fourth year. Besse 
says, '^ His soul, prepared for a more glorious 
habitation, forsook the decayed tabernacle, 
which was committed to tjie earth on the 
fifth of the Sixth month (August) following, 
at Jordan's, in Buckinghamshire, where his 
former wife and several of his family had 
been before interred." A multitude of 
Friends and others attended the funeral, 
which was a very solemn one, as Story de- 
scribes it, and the family, with the widow, la- 
mented with many tears the loss of one of the 
best of men. The meetings of men and wo- 
men Friends in America conveyed their con- 
dolence to the bereaved widow, and their tes- 
timony was grateful to her feelings. The 
Pennsylvania Indians sent her a message of 
sympathy and a present of ^' materials to 
form a garment of skins for traveling 
through a thorny wilderness," expressing by 
a symbol their sense of the troubles which 
lay before her, and their wish that she might 
safely pass through them. 



152 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

The children of Hannah Penn were John, 
Thomas, Margaret, Eichard and Dennis, and 
they were all minors. William Penn, Jr., 
claimed the government, as heir, but the 
claim was not allowed, and two years after 
the death of his father he died in France of 
consumption. On his death-bed he is said to 
have declared that he regretted the wrongs 
he had done. Hannah Penn held the govern- 
ment as executrix. Springett Penn, the son 
of William the younger, and the other heirs 
made a compromise, so that the will was 
made good. Hannah Penn died about 1727. 

By William Penn's will the sons of his 
second wife, John, Thomas and Richard, 
were made Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, 
and it became a very valuable possession. In 
1779, the Pennsylvania Legislature vested in 
the Commonwealth the family estate of the 
Penns in the soil, but gave the descendants 
of the Founder their private rights and 
" quitrents,'' and appropriated " 130,000 
pounds sterling " " to the representatives of 
Thomas and Richard Penn, the late Proprie- 
taries,'' to compensate them. The British 
Government allowed the heirs 500,000 




THOMAS 1'i:nn, r i;<> I' i: 1 li'i'A i: V 



''A Clever Little Town'' 153 

pounds. They claimed much more, l)iit tlic 
Committee on Claims left the extra ainomit 
to the consideration of Parliament. 

Penn's government left many a blessini^ 
to Pennsylvania. Education was early con- 
sidered in his plans. The year after he land- 
ed the governor and council engaged Enoch 
Flower to open a school in Philadelphia, 
where " dyet, washing and schooling " were 
to cost ten pounds a year. A few years later 
a " Friends' Public School " a;^ose. The poor 
were taught freely. 

Three years after Penn came there was a 
printing press at work. William Bradford 
was the printer. In 1719, the first newspaper 
was started in the city, and the only other 
one in the colonies was in Boston. In 1683, 
Penn established a post-office. 

Peter S. Duponceau, in a discourse before 
the American Philosophical Society, in 1821, 
quoted by Janney in his Life of Penn, says of 
the annals of Pennsylvania, '' They exhibit 
none of those striking events which the vul- 
gar mass of mankind consider as alone 
worthy of being transmitted to posterity. 
1^0 ambitious rival warriors occupy the stage, 



154 Fenn^s Greene Country Towns 

nor are strong emotions excited by the fre- 
quent description of scenes of blood, murder 
and devastation. But what country on earth 
ever presented such a spectacle as this for- 
timate commonwealth held out to view for 
the space of near one hundred years, realiz- 
ing all that fable ever invented or poetry ever 
sang of an imaginary golden age. Happy 
country, whose unparalleled innocence al- 
ready communicates to thy history the inter- 
est of romance ! Should Pennsylvanians 
hereafter degenerate, they will not need, like 
the Greeks, a fabulous Arcadia to relieve the 
mind from the prospect of their crimes and 
follies, and to reform their own vices by the 
fancied virtues of their forefathers. Penn- 
sylvania once realized what never existed be- 
fore, except in fabled story. Not that her 
citizens were entirely free from the passions 
of human nature, for they were men, and not 
angels; but it is certain that no country on 
earth ever exhibited such a scene of happi- 
ness, innocence and peace as was witnessed 
here during the first century of our social ex- 
istence.'' 

Edmund Burke said of the founder of 



;:5^^. 




JOHN PHNX, CJOVKHNOH 

SOX OK THOMAS 



"A Clever Little Town'' 155 

this great Province, '' His name was cher- 
ished as a household word in the cottages of 
Wales and Ireland, and among the peasantry 
of Germany; and not a tenant of a wigwam, 
from the sea to the Susquehanna, doubted 
his integrity." 

^' His fame is now as wide as the world; 
he is one of the few who have gained abiding 
glory/' 

When William Penn died, Sir William 
Keith was the lieutenant-governor. The 
names of John, Thomas and Richard Penn 
appear afterward, with others, as rulers of 
the colony. 

Keith deserves a passing notice. Graeme 
Park, not far from Hatboro, preserves the 
memory of its fonner distinguished owner. 
In the farmhouse of Abel Penrose on the 
place we saw a fine oil painting of Mrs. 
Fergusson, a descendant of Lady Keith. 
The picture was taken at from three to 
five years of age, and she died in 
1800. The antique mansion near by 
could tell many a story of her trou- 
bled life if it could speak. The bunch of 
keys on a girdle, still kept, indicates how the 



156 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

housekeeper, like the matrons of the South, 
dispensed her provisions to her household 
slaves during her short residence here. A 
bill of transfer marks the sale of the property 
by Keith to Thomas Graeme and Thomas 
Sober for five hundred pounds. Some hu- 
man chattels are noted thus, " A negro man 
named William, and an Indian woman, his 
wife, named Jane; a boy, their child, named 
William; Mercury, and his wife Diana, and 
Caesar." Let us be thankful that no such 
bills can be drawn to-day. Silver plate 
abounded, even candlestick and snuffers be- 
ing made of that precious metal. The house- 
hold goods were numerous, including " 3 
dozen of Rushy chairs." An iron chimney- 
plate is inscribed, " Remember thy end." It 
was formerly in the mansion, and placed in 
the chimney of the farm-house. It contains 
the coat of arms of the Governor. 

Keith's ancestor was made a baronet in 
1629. He was lieutenant-governor from 
1717 to 1726. He lived here in state, as a 
few more items show: " 6 large folding-tables 
of mahogany and black walnut, 8 smaller 
ditto, 1 mahogany tea-table, 12 fine tables of 



''A Clever Little 'Town'' 157 

different size, 3 fine India tea-tables, 2 Dutch 
ditto, 78 candle-molds, 20 pairs brass candle- 
sticks, 2 jacks with weights, 12 venison pots." 
On a post of the house-yard is an immense 
stone, which tradition says that the Governor 
required his men to lift as high as the knee as 
a test of their fitness for his service. 

The old stone hip-roofed mansion is in- 
teresting: near it is the fish-pond where Lady 
Fergusson used to feed the finny tribe. The 
fine chimneys and the long and narrow win- 
dows have an ancient look. Do they long for 
the beautiful faces that gazed out of them in 
the days long ago ? The remains of the jail 
wall are visible. The servants' quarters were 
in a building which has departed. The high 
ceilings of the mansion are astonishing when 
its date is considered. The fine parlor is 
wainscoted with pine to the very ceiling. 
The fireplaces are antiques. It is said that 
tapestry once adorned the fine chamber over 
the parlor. The laths of the house were split 
with an axe. 

Keith was a Scotchman, and a favorite 
in the colony. He seems to have inclined to 
the elder branch of the Penn familv, tliougli 



158 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

the Proprietary in his will indicated that he 
thought them provided for by the Irish 
estate, and that the interest in Pennsylvania 
should go to his children by his second wife, 
Hannah Callowhill. 

Keith's city abode was '^ the Shippen 
house/' on the west side of Second Street, 
north of Spruce Street, called the " Great 
House," and the '' Governor's House." It 
had a garden on two sides, where stood two 
tall trees of the primeval forest, a well- 
known landmark, visible for a great distance 
in every direction. William Penn once re- 
sided there with his suite for a month. The 
veteran local historian, William J. Buck, 
has an interesting article on Graeme Park in 
Bean's valuable ^' History of Montgomery 
County." A picture of Keith hangs in the 
rooms of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
vania, with a wig, long curls, and a coat of 
mail, a ruffle about his neck, and an ermine 
robe thrown over one shoulder. 

Keith had been Sul'^'eyor of Customs in 
the Carolinas. He encouraged the issue of 
paper currency, and laid the foundation of 
the militia system. He published a '^ History 



"A Clever Little Town'' i:>d 

of Virginia"; but he finally died neolcctcd 
and poor in London, in 1749. Ladv Kcitli 
died in Philadelphia. Keith favored the 
building of roads about Oraenie Park, where 
he lived after he lost his governorship. He 
gave the place to his wife, and she sold it to 
Joseph Turner, who sold it to Dr. Thomas 
Graeme, a physician of note in Philadelphia, 
and the son-in-law of Lady Keith, having 
married the daughter of her first husband. 
Keith built a pew in Christ Church, Phila- 
delphia, known as the Governor's pew. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Fergusson was a poetess. 
She bore to General Reed an offer of emolu- 
ment if he would use his influence to settle 
amicably the differences between England 
and the colonies. Reed replied that the King 
was not rich enough to buy him. Mrs. Fer- 
gusson professed to be shocked by the pro- 
posal, and may, in troublous times, have been 
at a loss how to act. She seems to have been 
devoted to the interests of the American 
cause. Her husband was Scotch, was accused 
of treason, and returned to the old country. 
The wife, who was a daughter of Dr. Graeme, 
led a benevolent life at Graeme Park, and 



160 Penti's Greene Country Towne 

was beloved by all. She sold the remainder 
of the estate to Dr. William Smith, of Phila- 
delphia, who married her niece, Anna 
Young. A large glass coach — that is, a 
coach with glass windows — used to carry the 
residents of the Park around the country, 
and in those days it doubtless attracted much 
attention. 

Mrs. Fergusson went to England, and was 
introduced into high circles there by the 
Reverend Dr. Peters, rector of Christ 
Church, Philadelphia. She was presented to 
George the Third, who gave her particular 
notice. In Philadelphia, she used to hold 
pleasant receptions in winter. It is said that 
she gave army linen and other materials of 
her own raising for the needy when the 
American army lay at Whitemarsh, and it is 
reported that Washington sent her a letter 
of thanks. Mrs. Fergusson translated Tel- 
emachus into English verse. The manuscript 
is in the Philadelphia Library. This good 
lady wrote out the whole Bible to impress it 
on her memory. 

General Lacy had his headquarters at 
Graeme Park in the Revolution, and at vari- 



'' A Clever Little Town " 161 

ous times Thomas and John Penn, Bishop 
White, Andrew Hamilton, Francis Ilopkin- 
son, Richard Stockton and the Reverend 
Nathaniel Evans were entertained there. 

Mrs. Fergnsson assisted the Reverend Dr. 
William Smith, Provost of the College of 
Philadelphia, in editing the poems of the 
Reverend Nathaniel Evans, of Iladdoniield, 
New Jersey, a missionary of the English So- 
ciety for Propagating the Gospel, ser\dng at 
Gloucester and at St. Mary's, Colestown. 
She wrote a poem on the death of this clergy- 
man, who had addressed poetic lines to her. 
The poems of Mr. Evans are in the library- of 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

Various governors followed in order, and 
the Penns took their turn in the care of the 
Province, until at last, after the Revolution 
changed the old order of things, and the col- 
ony emerged from its swaddling-bands, in the 
new order it was styled the Keystone in the 
great arch of the thirteen original States, 
which by successive additions won from the 
wilderness became the forty-five that now 
constitute our union. 

It is well for a man sometimes to consider 



162 P elfin's Greene Country Towne 

his cradle, and the weakness of his infantile 
years, that he may be properly thankful to 
God for the increased powers of manhood, 
and may also be ready to feel the responsi- 
bilities that come with the advance of oppor- 
tunities. A city of a million people where a 
few generations ago a handful of poor set- 
tlers lived among forests and savages, should 
inspire to hearty work for further advances 
as well as to songs of praise for what has 
been achieved. 





Woba Sualiia* 

" Against the strand beats wild tlie Hood, 
No bird's sweet voice is sounding, 
Night's mantle covers all the wood. 
The eye sees nought surrounding." 

— Swedish Song," Disappohited Expectation,]' 

translated by Clara Kappey. 

Little Sweden, on the Scandinavian 
peninsula, sent her sturdy northern peoph' 
to this new land to make a home in the wild 
wilderness. The Delaware River received 
them cordially, and both Pennsylvania and 
Delaware owe much to their early work, 
while many families are proud to trace their 
origin to so noble a source. Among their 
native fiords and islets they had been used 
to water craft, and they ran along the 
streams of the Delaware and Schuylkill, and 
their tributary creeks, as if they had been 
wild-fowl. The river banks seemed to them 
a paradise when compared with the snow- 
clad hills which they had left in the lionic 
land. 



164 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

Fishing was no new occupation for the 
Swede, and his gim and his hook made the 
water and the air his servants to furnish him 
needed food. The keeping of cattle was his 
natural work. His tastes were simple. He 
had a quiet energy, and was content with lit- 
tle, as luxury was hardly known in his native 
land. His wooden shoes now trod the sands 
of Delaware and Xew Jersey, and the new 
town of Philadelphia. 

While now the only colony which Sweden 
has is St. Bartholomew's, in the West Indies, 
in the early days of America she tried her 
hand in the new world, and had a brief rule 
here. But in the change of governments her 
few and quiet people made little trouble, and 
readily adapted themselves to whatever lot 
the good Lord assigned them. 

They brought with them their established 
Lutheran Church, and Provosts to take the 
place of the Bishops who bore rule in the 
mother-country; and so Odin and the monk 
Ansgar found admirers on a fresh soil. A 
generation before the emigration hitherward 
the brilliant reign of Charles the Tenth had 
given Sweden a new glory. Charles the 



Nova Suahia 1G5 

Eleventh married Ulrica, the child of a Iviiiii- 
of Denmark, and her name shines out l)ril- 
liantly in the beginning of Pennsylvania, in 
the region styled " Xova Suabia," or New 
Sweden. 

Finland, or the Lake region, sent out her 
contingent to America, and, as it is l)elievcd 
that the Northmen discovered this continent 
ages ago, now, by a sort of re-discovery, they 
utilized it. The Finns exchanged their rocks 
for sandy and fertile plains. Their heavy 
rains, long winters and months of darkness 
were replaced by a sunny land, where the soil 
tickled by the hoe laughed with a harshest. 
The reindeer gave way to the useful cow and 
the patient horse. St. Eric, centuries before, 
had stopped the piracies of these wild Xorth- 
men, and taught them the better Christian 
life. Sweden and Russia contended for the 
hands and hearts of the Finns, but Sweden 
won the mastery. The Lutheran religion 
bound the two nations together in a common 
faith, and this bright and active people gave 
their quota in making up the blood and sinew 
of our new province. 

Let us look in on one of the Swctlish 



166 Peiui's Greene Country Towns 

homes in the native land. It is in Kathar- 
ineholm. Eric Ericsson sits in his little house 
on a snowy winter evening, hugging his blaz- 
ing fire. His wife and children are round 
about him. A form is dimly seen in the fast- 
falling snow approaching the house, and soon 
Karl Winstrup is at the door. 

" Come in, neighbor; you are most wel- 
come," says the hospitable Eric. 

Karl enters, and shakes the gathered 
snow from his overgarment of skins. He 
takes the seat which the eldest son, Knud, has 
placed near the fire. 

" What brings you out this stormy 
night ? " exclaimed the host ; to which the 
guest replied: " Why need we talk of storms? 
We have nothing else. My ancestors have 
spent their days here hearing the winds blow, 
and fishing for food to keep them alive. But 
I have heard of a fair land where some of my 
kinsmen are going to make a new home across 
the wide sea. Shall we not join them ? " 

Then there followed a long talk, running 
into the small hours of the night, in which 
the old friends reviewed the trials of their 
own country, and the flaming hopes of the 



Nova Suahia 167 

new one, where pain and sorrow they hoped 
would be unknown, and gentle woman added 
her voice to that of the proposed emigrant, 
as Margaret the mother pleaded that she and 
her children might find a brighter home in 
the golden West. 

Before the company separated the die 
was cast, and in due time the united families, 
with many a friend and neighbor, were sail- 
ing over the main to the land of hope. Their 
descendants still abide in the fruitful fields 
which conquered the imaginations of their 
forefathers, and still the stream of JSTorthem 
emigration flows rapidly on, and the western 
prairies are dotted with the strange dwellings 
which repeat the habitations of the home 
region. 

'' The Annals of the Swedes on the Dela- 
ware,'' by the Reverend Dr. Jehu Curtis 
Clay, rector of Gloria Dei Church, Philadel- 
phia, shows the story of this race on our bor- 
ders. We will glean from it. The author 
■was of Swedish descent on his mother's side. 

Thomas Campanius, a grandson of the 
Reverend John Campanius, who came as the 
chaplain of Governor Printz, in A.D. 1G4:2, 



168 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

the Reverend Israel Acrelius, the Provost of 
the Swedish churches in this country, and 
pastor of Christina church, at Wihnington, 
Delaware, and Andreas Rudman, also fur- 
nish us valuable information concerning 
these matters. 

The church of Gloria Dei, at Wicaco, 
now Philadelphia, is one of the oldest sacred 
buildings in the land in which Divine Service 
is still maintained. The Church of the Holy 
Trinity, at Wilmington, is, however, one 
year older. 

Tlie Dutch were the first settlers on the 
Jersey shore of the Delaware, and it is sup- 
posed that the Swedes first occupied the 
Pennsylvania side of the river. In 1623 or 
1624, the Dutch erected Fort ^N'assau, at 
Gloucester, in New Jersey, but they soon 
gave up the post. A later colony of De Vries, 
on the Delaware, was murdered by Indians. 
Acrelius dates the coming of the first Swed- 
ish colony in 1638. In 1636-37, Queen Chris- 
tina's Prime Minister, Oxenstiern, favored a 
plan for colonization, and the Queen was 
pleased to accept it. The Indians sold the 
Swedes the territory from Cape Henlopen to 



Nova Suabia 160 

Trenton Falls. The colonists settled at 
Christina, naming their fort and the creek 
after their Queen. In 1642, Lientenant- 
Colonel John Printz, the son of a Swedish 
clergyman, was sent over as a Swedish gov- 
ernor. He was ordered to treat the Indians 
humanely, and to strive to Christianize them. 
Tinicum was the Governor's residence. 
There he built a fort, and called it New Got- 
tenberg. A wooden church was also l)iiilt 
and consecrated by Campanius, in A.D. 
1646. 

At first the Swedes opposed the building 
of Philadelphia, but after^vard agreed to it. 
Penn sent them books and catechisms, and a 
Bible for the church. The Keverend Jacob 
Fabritius served the church of Gloria Dei, 
at Wicaco, for nine years after he became 
blind. He preached in Dutch, whicli the 
Swedes understood. By the aid of John 
Thelin, postmaster at Gottenberg, in Sweden, 
Dr. Glaus Suebilius, Archbishop of Upsal, 
was authorized by Charles the Eleventh to 
send two clerg\^men to the Swedes on the 
Delaware. A third was afterwards adth^l, 
and Andrew Rudman, Eric Biork and Jonas 



170 Perui^s Greene Country Towne 

Auren came to their distant bretkren, and 
were received with joyful tears. The old 
block-house at Wicaco was used as a church. 

Biork writes to the Right Reverend Israel 
Kolmoden, from Christina Creek, in 1697, 
reporting to him as Superintendent that the 
Swedes are well clad and fed, and that the 
country has " no poor," as the land is rich, 
and those who will toil need not want. 

The Indians were friendly, and called the 
Swedes ^' their own people." They were 
fond of learning the Catechism, which had 
been printed in their tongue, and engaged the 
faithful lay-reader, Charles Springer, to 
teach it to their children. 

The parsonage at Wicaco was near Point 
Breeze. Some of the people would walk or 
ride sixteen miles to church, and yet attend 
the service regularly. They looked on their 
clergy " as if they were angels from heaven." 
The Swedes preserved their own language, 
and some were employed in the mild govern- 
ment of Penn. There were some Welshmen 
and Frenchmen in the colony. 

At the dedication of Gloria Dei Church 
it is mentioned that " there were a fi:reat 



Nova Suahia 171 

many English, persons and others })res- 
ent from Philadelphia/' and Mr, liiork 
summarized his discourse for them in 
English. Philadelphia was then at a 
distance from the church, and the 
date was 1700. The English wondered 
at the work of the comparatively iX)or 
Swedes in building two such goodly churches 
as those at Wicaco and Christina. Governor 
Nicholson, of Maryland, and Governor Bhick- 
stone, of Virginia, visited them, with their 
suites. Nicholson was a " great patron " of 
the Swedes. The ancient font, and the cher- 
ubs on the gallery, with the representation 
of the Bible underneath them, and the quota- 
tion from Isaiah about the people Who 
walked in darkness seeing " a great light,'' 
and the angels' song, '^ Glorv^ to God in the 
highest," are pleasant mementoes still of 
early days in Gloria Dei Church. 

Charles the Twelfth sent the Swedes 
Bibles and prayer books, and some other 
religious books. Dr. Jesper Swedberg, 
Bishop of Skara, was superintendent of the 
Swedish missions. He presented some of his 



172 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

Psalm books, versifications of the Psalms, by 
himself, to them. 

When Christ Church was enlarged the 
congregation worshiped three Sundays in 
Gloria Dei Church, and a Swedish hymn was 
sung at the English service. The Swedish 
clergy used to officiate for the English 
churches. 

In 1730, when the Rev. Mr. Lidman re- 
turned to Sweden, he took back to the King 
and Bishop Swedberg " some articles of 
peltry, as marks of gratitude for the favors 
received.'' Such simple gifts must have been 
welcome to the recipients, and the parson was 
wise in suggesting them. 

The Rev. Mr. Dylander seems to have 
been a sweet musician, who delighted his 
flock, and he is buried under the chancel of 
Gloria Dei Church, with this epitaph: 

" While here he sang his Maker's praise, 
The listening angels heard his song, 
And called their consort soul away, 
Pleased with a strain so like their own. 

" His soul, attentive to the call. 
And quickly listening to obey, 
Soared to ethereal scenes of bliss, 
Too pure to dwell in grosser clay." 



Nova Suabia 173 

This clergyman died at the early age of 
thirty-two. 

Alexander Wilson, the oniithologist, is 
buried in the graveyard of Gloria Dei 
Church. 

In 1758, the Swedes, in applying for a 
new minister from the home land, request 
that he may occasionally preach in Englisli, 
as Swedes and English are so intermingled 
that it is necessary that religious instruction 
should be given in both languages. So we 
see the advance of the English influence over 
the earlier settlers. The Reverend Charles 
Magnus Wrangel was so popular a Swedish 
clergyman that he was usually forced to 
preach in the open air, by reason of the 
crowds that attended his ministry. 

The last of the Swedish clergy made a 
strong impression upon the people of Phila- 
delphia on account of his quaint and humor- 
ous character. It was the Reverend Dr. 
Nicholas Collin. He had charge of tlie 
church at Swedesborough, Xew Jersey, and 
also of Gloria Dei, and the churches con- 
nected with it, for forty-five years. " Tie 
married three thousand three Inmdrod and 



174 Pejin^s Greene Country Towne 

seventj-five couples, averaging about eighty- 
four couples a year. In the early part of his 
ministry it averaged much more than this. 
The number of couples married by him in 
1795 was one hundred and ninety-nine, and 
in the following year one hundred and 
seventy-nine." He was learned in the lan- 
guages, and was a Vice-President of the 
American Philosophical Society. He died in 
1831, in his eighty-seventh year. This cler- 
gyman wrote an account of the Swedish Mis- 
sion in the records of the Swedesborough 
church. He states that the first Swedish 
colony came here in 1634, and three or four 
other detachments followed up to 1654. 

A little romance appears in the fact that 
the Swedish clergyman. Professor Kalm, a 
well-known writer on American affairs in 
early times, traveled through North Amer- 
ica, by the order of the King of Sweden, 
spent a winter at Raccoon, now Swedesbor- 
ough, and married the widow of the Rever- 
end John Sandin. 

When the time came for the Swedish 
missions to break from the fostering care of 
the mother country, and stand alone, the 



Nova Suah'ia 175 

Archbishop of Sweden wrote them a letter, 
in which he beautil'ully says, " It .-^hall also 
ever be my sincere wish and ardent prayer 
that Almighty God may, with His grace and 
mercies, embrace the members of these con- 
gregations jointly and separately, and that 
the Gospel light which was first kindled in 
those parts by the tender soHcitude of Swed- 
ish kings, and the zeal of Swedish clergymen, 
may there, while days are numbered, shine 
with perfect brightness, and produce the 
most salutary fruits." 

Thus did Uno Von Troil, with added 
words of benediction, set the mission for- 
w^ard on its new life in the young republic. 
Thousands of pounds were sj^ent by Sweden 
in nourishing the parishes along the Dela- 
ware River and in its vicinity. The final 
breaking of the connection at Wicaco did 
not, however, come until years after this 
period, when the last Swedish missionary, 
Dr. Collin, died. In A.D. 1831, an Ameri- 
can Episcopal clergyman, the Reverend Dr. 
Jehu Curtis Clay, became Rector, and Gloria 
Dei and the other ancient Swedish chnrches 



176 Penri's Greene Country Towne 

in Delaware and New Jersey are now con- 
nected with the Episcopal Church. 

The Swedish mission lasted over one hun- 
dred and thirty years. Dr. Collin had used 
the Episcopal Prayer Book, and his assistant 
ministers had been clergy of the Episcopal 
Church. 

Gloria Dei is the oldest church in Penn- 
sylvania, and those who go abroad to see the 
sacred antiquities of the old world should not 
omit a visit to this sacred shrine in '' God's 
Acre," Avhere the dead of the earliest time 
are sweetly and piously cared for in their 
green graves, and a touch of country life is 
seen in the midst of the rush of city business. 

Much has been here said of the religious 
life of the Swedes, and we can perceive by 
their history that these quiet people de- 
lighted in it, and felt it to be the chief part 
of their earthly existence. One of their 
clergy used to catechise the people personally 
in their pews on Sunday afternoons, as to 
what they had learned from the morning ser- 
mon. This would be thought irksome to- 
day; but, as Theology is the Queen of the 



Nova Suahia 177 

sciences, it would be well if all adults were 
thus carefully instructed. 

Arthur Peterson, in his " Songs of New 
Sweden," thus paints Swedish-American 
church life: 

" Six days labored the folk, but when rose the sun of 

the Sabbath, 
Kifle and plough were dropped, and the wheel stood 

still in its corner. 
Then, from near and from far, to tlie churches 

three of the province, 
One at Tinicum, one at Wicaco, one at Christina. 
Gathered the congregations, God-fearing men and 

their households." 

The picturesque costumes of the Swedish 
maidens and farmers brightened the new 
land. 

Longfellow, in ^^ The Children of tho 
Lord's Supper," has beautifully described the 
First Communion as celebrated in Sweden. 

The rowing of the boats to the Wicaco 
church was a picturesque scene, as fathers 
and mothers, children and sweethearts, dis- 
embarked to enter the temple of God, and 
after service the groups assembled in the 
church-yard to talk over the last news fri)m 
the dear homeland. 



178 Penn^s Greene Country Towne 

The weddings in the church, with the 
crown placed on the head of the happy bride, 
were beautiful to see. 

At Christmas time, the feeding of the 
birds showed the kind hearts of those who 
knew that in a cold winter it was needful to 
aid 'all of God's creatures. In Sweden, ot 
Christmas morning, torches which lighted 
the hills were carried in front of the wor- 
shipers going to the early service. Each 
home had its Christmas tree. Good Friday 
ever repeated its tale of sadness, while on 
Ascension Day Skara students sang Psalms 
at the rising of the sun on the church bal- 
cony, and wind-instruments accompanied 
them. In the new land the ancient civil and 
religious customs were observed, as far as 
possible. 





fficrmania* 

"Hail to posterity! 
Hail future men of Germanopolis! 

Let the young generations yet to be 
Look kindly upon this. 
Think how your fathers left their native land,— 
Dear German land ! sacred hearths and homes ! ! 
And where the wild beast roams 
In patience planned 
New forest homes beyond the mighty sea, 

There, undisturbed and free, 
To live as brothers of one family." 

—From the Latin of F. D. Pastorus. 

Whittier's translation. 

Judge Samuel W. Pennypacker and 
Townsend Ward have well wrought out the 
history of the ancient suburb of German- 
town, and I have myself striven in a large 
volume to condense and continue the most 
faithful work of Ward. Here we may give 
a short account of one of the most interesting 
features of the early settlement of Philadel- 
phia. 

Gabriel Thomas's description of Philadel- 
phia, and the whole Province of Peun>ylva- 



180 Perm's Greene Country Towne 

nia, appeared in A.D. 1698. He speaks of 
the " very good paper/' the ^' very fine 
linen/' and other manufactures of the Ger- 
man people. 

The drawing of lots took place in the 
cave of Pastorius, in Philadelphia, in 
October, *A.D. 1683. We can see the 
emigrants as they sit in the rude abode, 
laying off the land in the narrow strips 
which were the customary divisions of their 
native land. An October rain is drizzling 
down, and portions of the water are dripping 
in upon them, but these men who have borne 
the dangers of the sea to find a new home, 
are not discouraged by trifles. When the 
agent of the Frankfort Land Company draws 
out his chart the three Up den Graft's, broth- 
ers from Crefeld, and Tones Kunders, that is, 
Dennis Conrad, and the rest of the fourteen 
families, who, with their servants, w^ere to 
constitute the new settlement, were repre- 
sented by their heads, who thoughtfully 
scanned the mysterious lines on the paper 
which indicated the future house lots, the 
garden spots and yards, and the little farms 
where they would abide through life, and 



Germania 181 

which would be bequeathed to their off- 
spring. 

Said Dirck Up den Graff, '' Friends and 
future neighbors, this is a great day with us. 
I well remember when I first thought of this 
great enterprise. I was living, as you know, 
in Crefeld, where the silk and velvet manu- 
factures of Prussia are established, and was 
engaged in the silk trade, but war seemed 
never to hold back her cruel and bloody 
hand. My business grew poor, as the trade 
with foreign lands was halted. A beautiful 
young man named William Penn came 
among us on a religious visit, and so charmed 
the people that they wished him to abide 
among them, but he passed on in his mission- 
ary work. Then we heard a few years later 
that he had obtained a wide land in the West, 
and an account was sent us of a fair country 
where war should be unknown, and the rights 
of property should be duly obsen^ed. 

" One Christmas Eve I sat witli my dear 
wife Gretchen before the fireplace and talked 
of the sweet days of our early life, the court- 
ship, and the newly-married days, the lurths 
of our children and our deep anxiety for 



182 Peniis Greene Country Tow7ie 

their future welfare. They were then rest- 
ing in their quiet beds in the upper and lower 
attics, in the chambers borrowed from the 
roof, and the Christmas presents of good St. 
Nicholas had been distributed near their 
beds, that their waking shouts of joy might 
gladden our parental ears. We had been 
around among the poor that day bearing 
tokens of goodwill in food, delicacies and 
confections, and we were now trying in our 
simple way to dimly realize the reflection of 
the glory and praise of the heavenly angels 
two thousand years ago over the plains of 
Bethlehem, when heaven talked with earth, 
and the Lord Christ came to bless all man- 
kind. 

'^ But our hearts would still return to the 
earthly future of our dear ones, and we con- 
versed far into the night, until, I think by 
the direction of the Spirit of God, we deter- 
mined to leave the old roof-tree, and seek a 
new home and new fortunes in a land of 
peace and plenty, where the future would 
shine brightly upon our descendants. I sold 
my interests in my silk mill, persuaded my 
dear brothers to join our company, and here 



Ger mania 183 

we are. We have had temporary dwelling- 
places by the kindness of our new neighbors, 
but the winter draws on. We must have ])er- 
manent abodes, and arrange for planting our 
new tracts of virgin soil in the Spring. I am 
glad that our friend Pastorius is now ready to 
make good the promise made before we sailed 
as to the division of our lands. Let us pro- 
ceed to business, and may God be with us, as 
He has been with our fathers. May He who 
determines the bounds of men's habitations 
bless our undertaking." 

This pious speech pleased the assembly. 
The lots were assigned as \vas fair and law- 
ful; and so they stood for generations. 

The tanners of the old country found 
new work here, where each individual could 
enjoy the profit of his own toil. The stock- 
ing-makers went to work wdth a will, and 
their reputation and sales went far and wide. 

Krisheim, Crefeld and Suumicrliaii^ii, 
where Pastorius was born, were ])er])etuat(Ml 
in the names of the different sections of Ger- 
mantown, and Lenart Arets, Keynier Tyson, 
Willem Strypers, Jan fJoliu) Leusen, Peter 
Keurlis, Jan Seimens, Johannes TJolin) 



184 Penu's Greene Country Towne 

Bleikers, Abraham Tunes, and Jan Lucken 
(now Lukens), made a settlement which is 
now well known over all this land as one of 
the finest suburbs in the world, with its beau- 
tiful homes, shaded trees, artistic churches, 
and rustic drives along the wooded and wind- 
ing Wissahickon, whose name mingles 
sweetly with the old German names, keep- 
ing up the story of the times when German 
and Indian lived in amity in the days of Wil- 
liam Penn. 

Little did the quiet German think, as he 
tilled his field, or worked patiently in his lit- 
tle factory, that in after years the country- 
men of Penn would be fighting the Quakers 
and others in that very town, that the streets 
would be reddened by English blood; and 
that the old Chew House would stand for 
generations to mark the scene of the con- 
flict. 

It is a pity that the old German names of 
Crefeld for Mount Airy, and Summerhausen 
for Chestnut Hill, were not retained to pre- 
serve the relation of Germany to America. 
Pastorius sometimes called (rermantown, 
Germanopolis. 



Ger mania 185 

At the first, huts and caves sheltered the 
Germans. Germantown Road, or Main 
Street, was tlie backbone of the ancient vil- 
lage. The Wisters, the Shoemakers, Mel- 
chior Meng, Kreyter, Bockins, Kurtz, and 
Peter Smith were early land-owners. 

Tree life has its histoiy, and the tree is 
loved by its owner. Thoreau once said that 
he had an appointment to meet a tree, as if 
it had been a human friend. James Mat- 
thews built the springhouse on the Wister 
place, and planted a willow switch by the side 
of it, which soon grew so large as to shade 
the sun-dial, which he had placed on a post 
near it. The old-fashioned dig-nity of the 
Wister House, in Vernon Park, on Main 
Street, near Chelten Avenue (now the Free 
Library), and of many another in German- 
town, gave a solid look to the place; and the 
strength of the stone walls made these dwell- 
ings equal to any in the United States in 
later times than those of which we have been 
treating. 

An Indian path is supposed to have been 
the first mode of communication between 
Germantown and Philadelphia. Watson says 



186 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

that A. Cook told Jacob Kevser tliat lie could 
remember Germantown Avenue as an Indian 
footpath through laurel bushes. Xow Second 
Street and Germantown Avenue may be con- 
sidered as a continuously built-up street for 
thirteen miles to Chestnut Hill, being '^ one 
of the greatest avenues of any city in the 
world." 

The old Norris estate was at Fair Hill. 
The Rising Sun Inn was a famed hostelry in 
its time. Mcetown bears the name of an old 
family, which was originally called De Nyce. 

Louis Clapier, who owned Fern Hill, 
west of Wayne Junction Station, ought to be 
remembered for one practical saying of a 
charitable nature. When a poor woman's 
house was burned, he said, '' Ah ! gentlemen, 
I pity her fifty dollars, how much do you ? '' 
He led nine otherstto give the like amount. 

The Lower Burying Ground consists of a 
half acre, given by Jan Strcepers of Holland. 
The Reverend Christian Post, missionary to 
the aborigines of ISTorth and Central Amer- 
ica, was buried here in 1785. William Hood 
provided by will for the massive front wall. 



Ger mania 187 

He is buried here, aiitl the place has been 
called "' Hood's Cemetery." 

Fisher's lane recalls the fact that Joshua 
Fisher had a line of packet ships between 
Philadelphia and London before the Revolu- 
tion. His son Thomas is commemorated in 
the lane. He was captured at sea, and car- 
ried into Spain as a prisoner, but on his re- 
turn joined his father and brother in the shi}> 
ping business. He married Sarah, a daugh- 
ter of William Logan. They built Wake- 
field, so called after the residence of the 
maternal ancestor of Mr. Fisher, Joshua 
Maud, in the English Yorkshire. 

The Reverend Peter Kalm, the Swedish 
traveler, describes Gennantown in 1748. 
" Most of the houses," he says, " were built 
of the same stone, which is mixed with lilim- 
mer." Several houses, however, were made 
of brick. The town had three churches, one 
for the Lutherans, another for the Reformed 
Protestants, and the third for the Quakers. 
The inhabitants were so numerous that the 
street was always full. The Baptists had like- 
wise a meeting-house. 

Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, 



188 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

walking to Magara, passed Germantown, and 
thus writes in his poem, the " Foresters '' : 

■'Till through old Germantown we lightly trod; 
That skirts for three long miles the narrow road, 
And rising Chestnut Hill around surveyed, 
Wide woods below in vast extent displayed." 

A noted !N^ew York architect once said 
that the masonry of Germantown was the 
best in the United States. 

Christopher Saur has made Germantown 
illustrious. In 1724, he came to the place. 
He was born in Westphalia, and was a 
Dunkard preacher. He printed the Bible in 
German forty years before it was printed in 
English in this country. He pitied emi- 
grants, and was the means of establishing the 
Lazaretto. His son Christopher succeeded 
him in the printing work, and issued a second 
edition of the Bible. He afterwards built a 
paper mill, and published a third edition of 
the Bible. 

Wister's Big House is opposite Indian 
Queen Lane, and was built by John Wister, 
in 1744, as a summer residence. Here Gen- 
eral Agnew died. The grand-daughter of 



Ger mania 181) 

John Wister wrote '' Sally Wister's Jour- 
nal." 

The workers in yarn in (ierniantown 
wrought so faithfully, that " (u'nnantown 
Wool " denoted the best article of tlio kind, 
wherever made, throughout the United 
States, as Ward relates. The Moravian Endt, 
and the Palatine, the Reverend John 13ech- 
tel, whose daughter married the Indian mis- 
sionary Buttner; John Stephen Benezet, and 
Count Zinzendoi-f, who boarded with Bech- 
tel, illustrate our page as a list of German- 
town worthies. Three mechanics named 
Fleckenstein deserve notice for their quaint 
lives. The first two used to do jobs at three 
cents each, no matter how long the work 
employed them. The third, named Frederick, 
tried the same plan, but the war forced him 
up to five cents. Still they were content and 
happy. The one last named told Alexander 
Henry that he never Avent into the city. He 
was fond of botany and mineralogy. 

A Frenchman, Marie Rosot, gave tlic 
name to Manheim Street, "in honor of tlie 
beauty of the young ladies of ]\ranheim, in 
Germanv." When ho came from Austria to 



190 PenrCs Greene Country Towne 

this country, attracted by Washington's 
character, he landed in Philadelphia, and 
with some companions met Washington, who 
greeted him thus: " Bien venu en Amer- 
ique/^ which pleased Koset greatly. 

Trinity Lutheran Church, the old 
Friends' Meeting-house, and St. Luke's Epis- 
copal Church, show that religion was not 
neglected in the earlier or latter days of Ger- 
mantown. The Deshler-Washington-Morris 
House has reminiscences of Washington and 
his wife that are most interesting. The Pres- 
byterian Church on Market Square has a 
long history. The site was obtained, in 1732, 
by the "" High Dutch Keformed Congrega- 
tion." Here Count Zinzendorf preached his 
first and also his last sermon in America. 
Washington worshiped here when the preach- 
ing was in English, occasionally by the Rev- 
erend Dr. William Smith, the Provost of the 
College of Philadelphia. The Doctor was an 
eminent Episcopal clergyman, but the Gen- 
eral seems also to have attended the German 
service, though he was himself an Episco- 
palian. The church has been rebuilt. Mar- 
ket Square was formerly called " The 



Gennania 191 

Green." Here visiting Indians used to take 
their meals. 

Townsend Ward found a romance in the 
old Germantown half -door, as follows: 
" When evening closed and night had come, 
some pretty Gretchen, with her neat cap and 
short sleeves, loaned over the door at her 
accustomed place, and listened to the honey- 
vows of her lover Hermann, who stole her 
heart as he sat upon the doorstep, his life 
divided between his love for her and for his 
pipe, a puff for the one and a sigh for the 
other.'' 

When John David Schoepf traveled in 
the United States, in 1783-4, he spent a night 
at Chestnut Hill, where he wrote, "' There 
are two or three inns, besides some other 
dwellings." 

Chelten Avenue recalls the English Chel- 
tenham, which is named for the river Chilt. 

Eittenhouse Street, formerly " lane," 
perpetuates the memory of the famous 
family, w^hicli included the early ])aper- 
makers, and the astronomer, David Kitten- 
house. 

The small stone Mennonito Cliurch date? 



192 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

its organization away back to A.D. 1683. It 
was the first of that denomination in Amer- 
ica. A log building was first erected, in 
which Christopher Dock taught a school. 

The Johnson houses are reminders of the 
Battle of Germantown. Splintered doors 
and bullet-holes tell a sad tale of the fight. 
Peter Kejser, the well-knowm Durikard min- 
ister, lived in Ellwood Johnson's house. He 
may be compared to Dr. Collin, of Gloria Dei 
Church, as a type of the old-time parson. 
The Concord School House and the Upper 
Burying Ground, standing together, repeat 
the old story of young life, and the quiet end 
of life's joys and sorrows. The Rodney 
House brings up the revered name of an Epis- 
copal clergyman, who long did a good work 
for the Lord in this suburb, as rector of St. 
Luke's Church. 

Around the old Dunkard Church, in a 
pleasant cemetery, lie the dead of many gen- 
erations. 

Francis Daniel Pastorius must ever be 
associated with the history of Germantowm. 
He left a manuscript book entitled ^^ The 
Beehive," which is written in seven different 



Germania 11)3 

languages. I have seen the remarkable vol- 
ume, then in the possession of Mrs. Washing- 
ton Pastorius. It was written for the in- 
struction of the sons of Pastorius. 

Germantown was once selected as the 
capital of the United States. It is said that 
the influence of the financier, Kobert Morris, 
brought the seat of government to Phihidcl- 
phia. 

We must resume our brief sketch, pass 
old St. Michael's Lutheran Church, and go 
on to Chestnut Hill, remembering that while 
in the old times there was much opposition 
among the old folks when the yoimger ones 
wished that the preaching should be in I ig- 
lish, there are now not more than one or two 
churches in Germantown where the German 
language is used. 

We reach the Lutheran Theological Semi- 
nary at Mount Airy, where Franklin B. 
Gowen's father once resided. Chief-Justice 
William Allen formerly had his home here. 
This great merchant had a coach with four 
black horses, and his English coachman was 
an accomplished driver. Charles P. Keith 
o-ives an account of him in liis '' Provincial 



194 Peniis Greene Country Towne 

Councillors of Pennsylvania." He was '' per- 
haps the richest man in Pennsylvania." We 
can imagine the heads crowding the countr}' 
windows when his fine coach rolled over the 
country roads, and the envy of the drivers, 
as they watched the motions of the foreign 
Jehu. The country-seat of Chief-Justice 
Allen afterward became Mount Airy Col- 
lege. 




JTfje aftcrmati)* 

The magic bells of memoiy's wonder-city 
Peal forth for me their old melodious chime; 

So doth my heart pour forth a changeful ditty. 
Both sad and pleasant, from the bygone time. 

The domes and towers and castles, fancy-builded, 
There lie untouched by daylight's garish beams, 

And wrapped in gloom until unveiled and gilded 
With fleeting glory by my nightly dreams." 

— WiLHKLM MiELLKK, translated hi/ 

Jamks C. Mangan. 



The aftermath, or second crop of grass, 
on a farm is a matter of some consideration 
to the wise farmer. 

In our Western settlements it is observ- 
able that the first comers are not those who 
obtain the greatest benefits. By their enter- 
prise and self-denying work they prepare the 
way for their successors, and in the hurry 
and rush of modem American life their very 
names are lost as the sea of time floats them 
rapidly down to the ocean of oblivion. Of 
late there is an improvement in this respect. 



19 G Feniis Greene Country Towne 

The Sons and the Daughters of the Revolu- 
tion, and kindred societies, are looking back- 
ward, and striving to keep alive the flames of 
patriotism and the love of family. 

The coming of William Penn to this 
province may well be compared to the advent 
of William the Conqueror in England, and it 
is not to be a matter of wonder that the de- 
scendants of those who came previous to him 
and with him, and also those who came in the 
fifty vessels that ploughed the uncertain main 
in the following year, should feel a natural 
pride in ancestors who displayed so much 
bravery in their voyage, and in the great dis- 
comforts and hardships of early settlement in 
a savage and uncultivated land. 

When Penn landed in Philadelphia, there 
was not a fine house w^ithin it. In the early 
days of this new country it became the 
largest town in the provinces, and was the 
capital of the young republic. Then New 
York pressed past it, and took away its first 
place in population; and now pert young 
Chicago, on her Western throne on the Lake, 
has presumed to outnumber Philadelphia in 
her rapid race for distinction, giving a his- 



The Aftermath ID 7 

tory of progress perhaps imexanipled in the 
world. 

However, the history of Penn and his 
colony is by no means to be measured by 
standards of wealth and population, for silent 
and unknown influences, like light and heat, 
permeate space, and alter all things. Good 
words and noble deeds cannot die. The old 
State House bell that rang out to proclaim 
liberty was heard over the world, and is yet 
resounding in far-off lands, where tyrants 
tremble on their thrones as they hear its 
tones declaring the freedom of man. 

When the wife of Govenior Thomas 
Lloyd, as she landed, knelt down and prayed 
for the blessing of God on the infant colony, 
her prayer gained the blessing of ]>eac(* and 
prosperity. 

The city that had not a lawyer, and lacked 
even a physician, is now famed for its law 
schools and medical colleges, its practising 
jurists, and its eminent physicians. 

When Penn returned after his last visit 
to Pennsylvania he left one building in tlie 
town which must not be neglected. Okl 
Christ Church was built bv the adherents of 



198 Peiin's Greene Country Towns 

the Church of England under the ministry of 
the Reverend Thomas Clayton, in A.D. 
1695. In 1698 we find the Reverend Evan 
Evans in this post acting as a most zealous 
missionary, and reaching out to Marcus Hook 
(Chichester), Chester, Concord, Montgom- 
ery, Radnor and Perkiomen. His good work 
should be remembered in those places in all 
coming time. Penn wrote to Logan that 
Governor Gookin had presented '' Parson 
Evans with two gaudy, costly prayer-books as 
any in the Queen's chapel, and intends as fine 
a communion table also; both which charms 
the Bisho]> of London as well as Parson 
Evans, whom I esteem." 

Queen Anne also made the church a pres- 
ent of church plate, which is still held. She 
was very kind in sending such sacred presents 
to the colonies of America. The present rec- 
tor, the Reverend Dr. C. Ellis Stevens, has 
of late^ examined the foundations of the old 
church building under the present structure. 
In the present building Washington and 
Franklin worshiped, and underneath the 
chancel lie the remains of the ever venerated 
Bishop William White, who was once the 



The Aftermath IDO 

rector of this parish, in connection with the 
associated churches of St. Peter's ami St. 
James. 

The young Friends used to come and 
listen at the windoAvs outside tlie little build- 
ing which was the first edifice of Christ 
Church, and since the days when Quaker and 
Churchman had such warm conflicts in old 
Philadelphia many of the Friends and their 
descendants have become most welcome ad- 
herents of the Episcopal Church, bringing 
wdth them tlie kind philanthropy and staid 
dignity which characterized William Penn. 
They are to be found in the ranks of the 
clergy, and some of the American Bishops 
were once either Friends or descendants of 
Friends. 

A Quaker girl named Paschall, who used 
to play with William White in his childhood, 
said that '' Billy White was born a bishop, 
for she never could persuade him to play any- 
thino' but church." The Reverend Ceorge 
Whitefield preached in Chnst Church and at 
St. Paul's, and regularly at the old A('a«l<'iiiy 
in Fourth Street, where his wonderful <'lo- 



200 Penris Greene Country Towne 

quence drew many hearers, as he gave the 
message of Christ with marv^elous power. 

The Friends had meeting-houses at Mar- 
ket and Second Streets, and at Center 
Square, and in Front Street, above Mulberry 
Street, was the Bank Meeting, so called be- 
cause the earth was cut down before it in 
Front Street. The new Public Buildings 
now crowd Center Square with a busy set of 
offices, and the population of a moderate 
town within themselves, where was once a 
forest of hickory and oak trees, in a region 
where deer and wild turkeys used to resort. 

About A.D. 1695, the Presbyterians and 
Baptists met for worship in the same build- 
ing, which was a little store styled ^' the Bar- 
badoes-lot store," on the northwest comer of 
Chestnut and Second Streets. In 1695 the 
Reverend John Watts, from Pennepek 
Church, near Bustleton, served the Baptists, 
who were only nine in number. Pennepek 
was older, and had more members than the 
new congregation in the " great towne."" The 
two small congregations met together for 
some time, and the ministers who could be 
procured by cither denomination served both. 



The Aftermath 201 

After three years a New England Presby- 
terian pastor appeared, named Jedediah An- 
drews, and, as the Baptists thouglit that the 
Presbyterians wished the complete use of the 
building, they withdrew, and went to the 
brew-house of Anthony Morris, '' on the east 
side of Water Street, a little above the Draw- 
bridge, by the river side," according to Wat- 
son. 

The first church of the German Re- 
formed body was in Race, near Fourth 
Street. It was built about 1747, in an octa- 
gon shape, with a steeple. The Reverend 
Michael Schlatter was sent from Holland as- 
a minister. His life is sketched in my '' His- 
tory of Germantown," under the head of 
Chestnut Hill. 

The . Roman Catholic services may be 
traced, as Watson says, to a letter of Penn to 
Logan, in 1708, wherein he mentions that 
mass has been celebrated in Philadelphia, and 
the service is supposed to have been held in a 
frame building which had been a coffee- 
house, on the northwest corner of Front and 
Walnut Streets. A building at the southeast 
corner of Chestnut and Second Streets is 



202 Penn's Greene Country Towne 

said to have been built for a chapel. In 1729 
Miss Elizabeth McGawley, "" an Irish lady," 
brought hither some tenantry, to the Dick- 
son property, between j^icetown and Frank- 
ford, and had a chapel there. Mrs. Deborah 
Logan remembered seeing the ruins of the 
building in her girlhood. A priest named 
John Michael Brown was buried '' in a stone 
enclosure '' not far away. He died in A.D. 
1750, and " E. I. P." is marked on his mar- 
ble tombstone, an abbreviation for Requiescat 
in Pace. Let us hope that the loving prayer 
for the dead pastor of the early day has been 
made good, and that in Paradise he has en- 
tered on the joy which ever follows the ser- 
vants of Christ here and hereafter. 



It is a pleasant October morning. Let us 
take Southey's advice, drop our books, listen 
to the singing of the birds, and try to read 
from the open book of nature, written by the 
finger of God. We will walk dowTi to Dock 
Street, and meditate on the days that are 
gone, never to return. There is a little haze 
in the Autumn air, and we begin to expect 



The Aflrnnalk 203 

the coiiiin*;- wintci-, hut arc (IctcriuiiKMl lo 
enjoy the warmth while it lasts. 

A little down the broad Delaware we see 
a sail approaching. It draws nearer. There 
is something exceedingly strange abont the 
craft. The wood lacks paint, the sails are 
brown and weather-worn. We ])nt our hands 
over our brows and look again. 

The wind is fair; on and on the phantom 
ship glides, though we see no pilot, and hear 
no seaman's calls as she nears the land. 

The ghostly vessel has touched the wharf. 
We run to the side of it, and there meets us 
an ancient individual with a sweet and loving 
and venerable face, in which the pain of 
affliction seems mingled with the greater joy 
of victory as we hear him say, " ]N'o Cross, Xo 
Cro^vn." The wide-brimmed hat and the 
dress of Friends leave us no more room for 
doubt. The veritable William Penn is be- 
fore us. The earnest and longing and prayer- 
ful wish of the last painful years of an over- 
Avorked and overtired man is now accom- 
plished, and the founder of Pennsylvania 
stands again on the soil he loved so well, and 
for which he did and sutlered so nnich. The 



204 Perm's Greene Country Towne 

aged man has a dazed look as he gazes about 
him. His last remaining male descendant 
has left this world, and he feels that he must 
revisit its sunlight again, that he may see and 
know how his old colony fares as the cen- 
turies roll away. 

We apprQach him, as we observe that he 
needs a guide in what is indeed now a new 
land to him — a new country grown out of an 
old one. 

^^ Friend William,'' we say, ^^ what do you 
seek, and how can we aid you ? " 

Penn loquitur (and it is a kind and pleas- 
ant voice), " My new and kind friend, I de- 
sire to know where Dock Creek is. We 
appear to have landed at the wrong place." 

Such a query brings us face to face with 
the great changes which the passage of two 
long centuries have made in the City of 
Brotherly Love, and so our conversation runs 
on to the days that are past as I reply, 
" The needs of modern times have led to the 
walling over of the old creek which glim- 
mered so beautifully in the sun when you 
first visited the land of your hope." 

" I sadly regret this violation of nature. 



The Aftermath 205 

and wish to see things as they were, rather 
than as they are; but 1 am weary with my 
long voyage. Please take me to Guest's 
House, which thou callest ' The Blue An- 
chor Tavern.' I well recall mine host, and 
would meet him again." 

" I am pained to disappoint you once 
more, but the tavern has disappeared in the 
lapse of time. Great hotels which are 
almost like palaces have taken the place of 
the oldest inn of Philadelphia; the times and 
the people are greatly changed. I will con- 
duct you to one of them. Let us take a trol- 
ley car." 

The Quaker garb and antique dress drew 
the gaze of many modern Philadelphians as 
the Proprietary entered a car in w^onder, and 
asked what propelled the strange vehicle. 
When informed that electricity \vas the mo- 
tive powder, his wonder knew no bounds. As 
he looked out of the wide windows he saw 
the Bourse, and inquired what it could be. 
He was told that the increased trade of the 
city demanded a house of exchange inv 
domestic and foreigTi business. Xext the old 
State House met his eve, and he was in- 



206 Penns Greene Country Towne 

formed of the Revolutionary war, and the 
sale of nearly all of the Penn lands to the 
new State. Then the modern sky-scrapers 
attracted his notice. '' What are these Tow- 
ers of Babel/' he cried, " that strive to reach 
heaven in a town where humble men once 
dwelt in caves ? '' 

The answer came, " The town is so 
crowded, and the greed of gain so great, that 
a w'hole village is crowded on a single lot, and 
thousands are shielded under one roof in the 
upper part of the city, while the real and 
ancient city where you dwelt is becoming of 
less account." 

With a shrug of deep dissatisfaction my 
companion replied that he would like to visit 
the '^ Letitia House," where he had enjoyed 
many hours. He learned with displeasure 
that the rushing city had found the old build- 
ing in the way, and so had pushed it out into 
the Park. He was glad that it was allowed 
to live somewhere, and thought that the 
green grass, and the quiet hillside better 
agreed with its history than the busy street, 
which would be worried in the midst of its 



The Aftermath 207 

feverish haste by the calmness of this antique 
relic. 

The vast stores, the strongly-built banks, 
and the splendid churches called forth many 
an exclamation of surprise, as the old man 
viewed the " greene towne " which he had 
imagined in its foundation, when a few hardy 
adventurers settled along the bank of the 
broad Delaware Kiver, or thrust themselves, 
with their huts and simple dwellings, a little 
way into the bushes that claimed prior pos- 
session of the inner land. 

The Public Buildings catch the eye of 
the observant Penn. ^^ What is this enorm- 
ous pile on my old Center Square/' he cries, 
^' where I allotted ten acres for a public 
ground ? '' 

The answer came, '^ The public needed 
this, or thought they did, or those who ruled 
them made them think they required this 
tract for buildings for dispensing justice in 
the city. Here, in the vaults, you may find 
old deeds of your own day, and the signatures 
of Indian chiefs." 

" Where are the Indians ? '' he said. 



208 Penns Greene Country Towne 

" Gone to the happy hunting-grounds," I 
replied. 

" What has been done with my ^ Great 
Law/ which cost me so much thought and 
care, and which even my friend John Locke 
admired ? " said Penn. 

The one addressed was forced to say, 
'' The ' Great Law ' is no longer in use, 
though the good principles which you in- 
stilled into the people are not dead." 

'^ Do any such political troubles exist as 
were rife in my young colony, and which 
troubled me greatly, whether I was here or 
in the old country ? " I was here obliged to 
hide my blushing face, and make no reply. 

The Philadelphia Library drew from 
Penn a tear, as he thought of his faithful 
Logan, to whom it is so much indebted. The 
Episcopal Academy led me to tell him of the 
grandeur of the University of Pennsylvania, 
and its wide work under Provost Harrison; 
and he was delighted to hear that his early 
efforts for education had been so much ex- 
tended. 

We now entered a magnificent hotel, and 
a mouu was luit before us such as was not 



The Aftcnnath l'U'.) 

dreamed of two centuries ago. It did nut 
please our visitor, and \\v spoke of tlic simple 
way in which he had spent his days in the 
Pennsylvania life of his time, when tame and 
wild fowl and fish and the fruits of the earth 
had satisfied his frugal appetite. 

" Where are the native trees of the 
town ? " he asked, as we came out into the 
air. '^ I named my streets for them, and de- 
lighted in their odor, and considered them as 
lovely monuments of an elder day, when for- 
ests covered this good land. I would dearly 
love to see all these towering buildings swept 
away, that I might look once more on the 
pleasant little hills and valleys and streams 
that diversified my new town, my virgin 
Philadelphia, now so sadly marred hy man's 
efforts at improvement. T^et us take my 
barge and leave this place, and go to beloved 
old Pennsbury ! " 

It was a sad necessity that impelled me to 
say that his mansion no longer existed. 

He then asked for the Slate Roof House 
of William Trent, where his son John was 
born, and w-hich would be full of pleasing rec- 
ollections of the wedded life of himself and 



210 Pemi's Greene Country Towne 

good Hannah Callowliill. I could only say, 
" Ichabod," and, with a sigh from him for 
departed glory, we walked on. 

The philanthropist was pleased to see his 
figure elevated above the dust and smoke of 
the city on City Hall, and to be told that a 
people, ungrateful in his first work for them, 
noAv remembered him w^ith great honor. 

During our conversation the rapid bicy- 
cles had been flying past us, and one careless 
rider brushed the coat of the aged man. He 
started in wonder to hear that men to-day 
rode a single wheel. A little further on a 
noiseless vehicle was speeding along, and 
I did not notice his danger until an automo- 
bile had pressed him to the ground. He was 
not badly injured, and an ambulance con- 
veyed him rapidly to the Pennsylvania Hos- 
pital. There kindly doctors and nurses cared 
for him, but when I called the next morning 
to inquire about him he had vanished, and 
T could liardlv believe I had ever seen him. 



INDEX. 

Acrelius, Rev. Israel, 168 

Act of Toleration, 86 

Allen, William, Cliief Justice, 193, 194 

Allhallows Church, Barking, 33 

Am ity, The, 67 

Amyrault. Moses, 39 

Andrews, Rev. Jedediah, 201 

Anne, Queen of England, accession of, 126 

Aubrey, Barbara, 139 

Aubrey, Letitia (Penn), 119, 132, 141 

Aubrey, 8ir Reginald, 141 

Aubrey, William, 139, 141, 149 

Auren, Jonas, 170 

Baltimore, Lord, 59 

Barking, Allhallows Church, 33 

Batten. Sir William, 53, 54 

Bechtei, Rev. John 189 

Beekham, Robert, 118 

Benezet, John Stephen, 189 

Bevan, John, 139 

Bicklev, Abraham, 139 

Biles, William 143 

Biorek, Rev. Ericus, 14G, 1G9, 170 

Blackwell, Captain John, 85 

Blue Anchor Tavern, 74 

Bradford, William 138, 153 

Brown, Rev. John Michael, 202 

Bristol (England) 18 

Bristol Factor, The, 67 

Buck, William J., 158 

Burlington, New Jersey, 63 

Byllinge, Edward, 58 

Callowhill, Hannah, wife of William Penn,. .89, 92-90 

Callowhill Manor, 132 

Campanius, John, 167 

Campanius, Thomas, 167, 169 

Cannassetego, 120 

Carpenter, Hannah Ill 

Carpenter, Samuel 119. 126, 138, 142 

Carteret, Sir George, oH 

Cartledge, Edmund, 139 

Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, 48 

Chapman, John, "8 



212 Index. 



Charles the Second, 43,51-54,57,59,61,77,85 

Chigwell, Essex, 35 

Christ Church College, Oxford, 37 

Christina (Wilmington) , 146 

Clapier, Louis, 186 

Clay, Dr. Jehu Curtis, 167, 175, 176 

Clavpoole, J 64, 67 

Clayton, Rev. Thomas, 198 

Coaquannoek 74 

Collin, Rev. Dr. Michael, 173, 175, 176 

Cork, Admiral Penn's estate at, 36, 41 

Crispin, William, 32 

Cromwell, Oliver 51 

Delaware, State of, boundary of, 69 

Deleval, Hannah, 118 

Drinker, Elizabeth 139 

Dungan, Rev. Thomas, 133 

Ellis, Rowland, 142 

Ellwood, Thomas, 43, 48 

" Essay Toward the Present and Future Peace 

of Europe, An," 87 

Evans, John, Governor, 133. 142 

Evans, Rev. Nathaniel, 161 

Evelyn, John 52 

Fabritius, Rev. Jacob, 169 

Fagg's Manor : 132 

Fenwick, John, 58 

Fergusson. Mrs. Elizabeth 155, 157, 159-161 

Fermor, Ladv Juliana 132 

Fisher, Bishop, 34 

Fisher, Joshua, 187 

Fletcher, Benjamin, Governor of New York, .... 87 

Flower, Enoch, 153 

Ford, Philip 143 

Fort Nassau 74, 168 

Fox, George 42 

" Friends' Public School," 86, 153 

Gloria Dei Church, 146, 168 

Gookin, Charles, Governor, 143, 144 

Gookin, Sir Vincent, 144 

Graeme Park 155 

Graeme, Dr. Thomas 159 

Greenway, Robert 73 

Hamilton, Andrew, 125 

Harsnet, Bishop 35 

Hill, Captain Richard, 118, 142 



Index. '1 1 3 

Hisjianiola, Admiral Penn's attack on 50 

Holnio, Thomas, 6*J 

" Holy Expei iment," the GO 

Hood. William, 180 

Howell, Arthur, 140 

Hudson, Henry, 139 

Hudson, William, 139 

Indians, Penn's solicitude for 03, 00, 07, 79 

Jamaica, Admiral Penn's conquest of, 50 

James the Second, 43. 57, 09, 85 

Jasper, Anne, 32n 

Jasper, Hans, 19 

Jasper, Margaret, mother of Wm. Penn, ll)-2(), 32.39, 42 

Jeffreys, Judge, GO 

Jerseys, The, 58 

John 'Old Sarah, The, 67 

Jordans, Buckinghamshire, 57, 151 

Kalm, Rev. Peter, 174, 187 

Keach, Elias, 133 

Keith. George 80. 87 

Keith. Sir William, 151, 155-158 

Kevser. Peter, 192 

Lalie, Edward, 130 

Llovd, David, 110, 137, 142 

Lloyd, Thomas, President of Council, 79,85,86,88 

Locke, John, 37 

Loe. Thomas 30, 37, 41. 55 

Logan, Deborah, 102-108 

Loiran, Di-. George, 102 

Logan, James, 100-108, 125, 127. 12S. 134. 142. 149 

Logan, Sarah, 187 

Logan, William, 187 

" Low er Counties," the 69 

McGawlev, :^fiss Elizabeth, 202 

Majior Svstem, the, 130. 131 

Markham, William, 08, 88 

Maryland boundary, '9 

Masters, Thomas, 12<i 

Masters, William, 141 

Matthews. James l^-' 

Milton, John 48 

Minety, 29 

Moore, John, 10;* 

Moore, Mary, •• ^'^'^ 

Moore, Nicholas, *»4, 13l 

Moreland Manor, 1'^- 



214 Index. 

Monis, Eobert, 193 

Naaman, 120 

New Amsterdam, 57 

New Castle, Delaware, 69, 74 

Newgate, 43 

Nichols, Ann, 118 

Norris, Isaac, 103, 125, 126, 137, 142 

Norristown and Norriton, 131 

Nova Caesaria, 58 

Offlev, Daniel 140 

Old Swedes' Church, 146, 168 

Orniond, Duke of, 40 

Owen, Dr. John, 37 

Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 138, 180, 192 

Pemberton, James, 140 

Pemberton, Phinehas, 119, 126 

Penington, Isaac, 44 

Penn, Dennis 152 

Penn, George, 19 

Penn, Giles, 18 

Penn, Hannah (Callowhill), Ill, 116, 149-152 

Penn, John, Governor, 155 

Penn, John. " The American," Ill, 117, 152 

Penn, Letitia, 56, 119, 132, 141 

Penn, Margaret, 152 

Penn, Richard, 152 

Penn, Springett, 56, 152 

Penn, lliomas, 152 

Penn, William, the elder, 17,18,28,29,31, 

36, 38, 39, 40-43, 50-54 
Penn, William, the Founder; birth, 28; baptism, 
34; boyhood, 35,36; education, 37-40; early 
manhood, 38-41; becomes a Friend, 41-43; im- 
prisonment, 43: marriage, 44-49; receives 
grant of Pennsylvania, 59: plans its settle- 
ment and government, 60-65; voyage to 
America, and founding the new colony, 66-81; 
return to England, 80: anxieties of govern- 
ment, 82-87; second marriage, 89-97; second 
voyage to Pennsylvania, 99,100, 109-112; 
residence at Peniisbury, 116-118, 122-125; 
return to England. 120; opposition and finan- 
cial troubles. 118, 126 128, 142-144; last days, 

148-150; death and burial .*. . 151 

Penn, William, Jr., 56, 125, 131. 133, 134, 137, 152 

Pennsburv, 76, 110, 116, 118, 131 



Index. 2 1 5 

Penn's Lodge (Wiltshire), 29 

Pennsylvania, derivation of name, 60 

Pennsylvania, negotiations for the sale of, to 

the Crown, 148, 149 

Pennypaeker, Hon. Samuel W., 179 

Pepys, Samuel, 53 

Peter the Great, Per.n's Visit to, 98 

Philadelphia, plan and growth, 75-79; Penn's 

prayer for, 80 

Plumstead, Clement, 134 

Post, Rev. Christian, 186 

Preston, Mrs. Amos, description of Penn by, .... 75 

Preston, Samuel, 134 

Printz, John, 167, 169 

Proprietary Estate of the Penns, purchase of by 

the Pennsylvania Legislature 152 

Risey Caleb, \ 76, 152 

Quarry, Colonel Robert, 109, 127, 137 

Quit-rents in Pennsylvania, 62 

Reed, Sarah, 100 

Richardson, Joseph, 139 

Richardson, Samuel, 137, 138, 139 

Riekmansworth, Hertfordshire, 45 

Righton, Sarah (Biddle), 134 

Rittenhouse, David, 191 

Rotterdam, 19 

Roset, Marie, 189 

Rudman, Andrew, 140, 169 

Ruscombe, 131, 148 

Saint Marv's Church, Burlington, N. J., 134 

Saint Marv's Church, RedcliflFe, 96 

Saint Paul's Church, Chester, 134 

Sandin, Rev. John, 174 

Saumur, Penn's studies at, 39 

Saur, Christopher 188 

Savery, William, 140 

Scattergood, Thomas 140 

Schlatter, Rev. Michael, 201 

Schoepf, John David, 191 

Scull, .Nicholas 121 

Shannigarrv Castle, 41 

Sharp, Hugh H^^ 

Shippen, Edward, 126. 142 

Sidney, Algernon, 60 

Smallpox on the Welcome, 72 

Smith, Peter, 185 



216 Index, 

Smith, Dr. William, IGO, 190 

Springett, Gulielma Maria, wife of Wm. Penn, 44-50, 56 

Springett, Sir William, 44 

Stenton, 101, 104, 108 

Stoke Manor, 131 

Story, Thomas, 99, 118 

Streepers, Jan, 186 

Streets of Philadelphia, 75 

Suebiliiis, Dr. Olaus, 169 

Sunderland, Robert, Earl of, 37 

Surrey, Earl of 33 

S\\ edberg. Dr. Jesper, 171 

Tamanend, the Indian Chief, 119 

Taylor, John, 54 

Tenures in Pennsylvania, 62 

Thelin, John, . . .' 169 

Thomas, Gabriel, 179 

Thomas, R 142 . 

Thynne, William, 33* 

Tinicum, 74 

Toleration, Act of, 86 

Townsend, Richard, 78 

" Ultima Thule," ancient notions concerning,. .114-116 

Up den Graff, the three brothers, 180-183 

Upland (Chester) , 68, 74 

Van Duyen, Dominie, 24 

Wain, Nicholas, 137, 140, 141 

Ward, Townsend, 179 

Warton, Thomas, 38 

Watts, Rev. John, 200 

^yelcomf, The, 67 

Welsh immigrants to Pennsvlvania 64 

White, Bishop William, . . .' 198. 199 

Williamstadt Manor 137 

William the Third. King of England, death of.. . . 126 

Wilmington, Delaware 146 

Wilson. Alexander, 173, 187 

Wingohocking, the Indian Chief, 103 

Wister, John 188 

Wister, Mrs. Owen J 108 

Wister, Sally, 108 

Wood, Rebecca 117 

Worminghurst, Sussex, 46 

Wrangel, Rev. Charles Magnus 173 

Yellow Fever, 100 

Zin/.endorf. Count, 189. 190 



NOV 2^ l«n^ 



SPECIMEN ILLUSTRATIONS 




ROTTERDAM. THE HOME OF WILLIAM PENNS MOTHER. 



'V -n}"^ ^ ^■^^.^v■. ,,w^^^ ' ^!4^!^^ 




4'lt^^ 










MODERN RESTORATION OF PENNSBURY. 




m 



KEV. S. F. HOTCHKIN. 



HON. THOS. V. COOPER, in "The American," Media, Pa., December 19, 1903. 

" Penn's Greene Country Towne " is the fiuaint title (A pen and 
pencil sketches of early Philadelphia and its prominent characters, by 
Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. of Bustleton. We have read it. and have been 
charmed by every chapter ; in fact, any one having knowledge of 
Philadelphia and its surroundings will find their interest growing with 
each succeeding incident and chapter. The Rev. Mr. Hotchkin is not 
unknown to Delaware County, and for years he was a sketch writer 
for the "American." He is the author of " History of Germantown," 
" The Old York Road." " Bristol Pike." " Rural Pennsylvania." etc. 
He is a charming writer, his English plain and fine, and he has the 
faculty of making every incident which he touches upon doubly 
interesting, even where the reader has known of it before. We say 
most decidedly that all who wish knowledge of Philadelphia and its 
adjacent counties should place in their libraries all of the Hotchkin 
works. 



GENERAL W. H. H. DAVIS, in the " Doylestown Democrat," December, 1903. 

The Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. Bustleton, one of our most prolific 
authors, has recently added a new and inviting volume to his publica- 
tions, and one of the most interesting. Few books of any kind bring 
to mind so many pleasant thoughts and reflections to a Pennsylvanian. 
The title alone suffices to make the book popular. * * * From 
cover to cover the story of William Penn and his colony is rehearsed 
with increasing interest. The title of the book is typical of what Penn 
did for his colony by the constant adding of " Greene " spots to the 
picture. Interest in the book is largely increased by the beautiful 
illustrations that adorn the pages, and the handsome manner in which 
Ferris & Leach, the Philadelphia publishers, have brought it out. 

. \ 

REV. JOHN FULTON, D.D., in "The Churchman," January 30, 1904. 

Fact and fancy are interestingly mingled in "' Penn's Greene 
Country Towne." pen and pencil sketches of early Philadelphia and 
its prominent characters, by the Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. of St. Luke's. 
Bustleton. in suburban Philadelphia. (Ferris & Leach). The interest 
of the volume is considerably enhanced by reproductions of old prints. 
portraits and .scenes, and the narrative is carried well to the end of 
the seventeenth century. Penn takes, of course, the largest, but by no 
means an undue, place, and the long index of names at the close 
shows how wide has been the reach of the author's long gleaning in 
the area of this interesting colonial field. The religious interest 
naturally bears a prominent part. 

(From a Personal Letter.) 

I should think that every Philadelphian. and, indeed, every Penn- 
sylvanian, would be glad to have that book. 



PRESS NOTICES. 

The venerable and learned Rector of St. Luke's Church, Bustle- 
ton, Rev. Dr. S. F. Hotchkin, has compressed a good deal of inter- 
esting antiquarian lore and not a little fancy into his life of William 
Penn. * * * He has made an interesting and gossipy book, which 
will serve to enlighten many who have not delved deeply into the 
history of the origin of the city and the unique plan upon which it was 
founded. 

— The Pi(b/ic Ledger, Philadelphia, January 24, 1904. 



This community is again under obligation to Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. 
of Bustleton, for his " Penn's Greene Country Towne," which com- 
prises pen and pencil sketches of early Philadelphia and its prominent 
characters. * * With the painstaking industry which characterizes 
all his work, Mr. Hotchkin has collected a large quantity of varied 
and interesting material, mostly entirely outside the beaten path of 
history makers, from many different sources, which he has arranged 
in convenient shape and attractive form for the student and reader. 

— Doylestown Inielligencer, December 12, 1903. 



Rev. S. F. Hotchkin, Rector of St. Luke's Church, at Bustleton, 
has written, under the title of "Penn's Greene Country Towne," a book 
of sketches in which he has pictured the life of the founder of the 
city, the events of its settlement and early progress, and the personal 
relation of Penn and his family to the city and its people. The aim of 
the author has been to present a narrative which, while entirely faith- 
ful to the records, would also admit of a judicious exercise of the 
imagination in making inferences and in producing a vivid impression 
as to the personality of the Founder, his habits, his moods, his manners 
and his daily life. Nowhere is there any departure from historic evi- 
dence, nor, on the other hand, is the book intended to be a " historic 
romance " ; it simr' mploys the faculty of insight into facts, while 
adhering to the A lines of a narrative, and show how they may 

be made susceptible of a familiar, pleasant treatment, which at times 
takes on a colloquial form. Mr. Hotchkin does it with a sympathetic 
interest in his subject and brings to it an extensive knowledge gained 
through his explorations of local annals. 

— The Evening Bulletbi, Philadelphia, February 13, 1904. 



H 9^ 89 

full-page plates, poStps 



i2mo, 216 pages, 26 full-page plates, postpaid, $1.00 net. 

FERRIS & LEACH, PUBLISHERS 
29-31 North Seventh Street, Philadelphia 
















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